Iván Carrillo is a journalist and documentary maker specializing in science, health, and the environment. A graduate of UNAM and the University of Guadalajara (UdeG), he has been a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT, a National Geographic Explorer, and a Pulitzer Center grantee. He served as editor-in-chief of QUO México and currently leads Historias Sin Fronteras and Celsius Media. Carrillo hosts the Ibero-American Scientific and Cultural Newscast (NCC) and contributes to outlets such as Knowable Magazine and Dialogue Earth. He has produced the series 1.5 grados para salvar al planeta (Televisa–Univisión), El futuro del planeta (EarthXTV), and La ciencia del fútbol (SPR), as well as the documentary Última llamada. He is co-author of A Tactical Guide to Science Journalism (Oxford University Press). Carrillo is the recipient of the 2024 CCNow Journalism Award and the 2025 Eric & Wendy Schmidt Award for Excellence in Science Communication, granted by the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Team
This story was produced in partnership with the 
-
• General Editor:
Iván Carrillo
-
• Deputy Editor:
Aminetth Sánchez
Aminetth Sánchez is a Mexican journalist and media strategist. She investigates and tells stories about how environmental issues, science, the economy, and human rights intersect with power. She has led the growth of editorial projects through digital strategies designed to expand audiences and strengthen public dialogue. Sánchez is the co-founder of Fábrica de Periodismo and served for two years as director of the news organization La-Lista. Her reporting has appeared in Mongabay, Gatopardo, Emeequis, Tec Review, Expansión, Aristegui Noticias, and Milenio. She contributed to the investigative project Los explotadores del agua, winner of the 2020 Javier Valdez Latin American Award for Investigative Journalism and a finalist for the Gabo Award in the Coverage category. -
• Art Editor:
Miguel Ángel Garnica
Miguel Ángel Garnica is the Web Design Coordinator for the newspaper El Universal, with over 23 years of experience in digital design. He collaborated for thirteen years with the newspaper Reforma in Mexico City. He holds a degree in Communication and Journalism from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and a Master’s in digital design from Universidad Simón Bolívar. He specializes in advanced web design and interactive data visualization. He has collaborated with the Iglesias y Minería Network, Historias Sin Fronteras, and Connectas. -
• RRSS Editor:
Raquel Villanueva Juárez
Raquel Villanueva Juárez is a writer, translator, and editor with more than 15 years of experience covering health, nutrition, wellness, parenting, and travel. She works in Spanish, Catalan, and English, both in translation and editorial production. She has collaborated with media outlets such as El Universal (Mexico), Diari ARA (Catalonia), and the podcast En Común. She has served as editorial director for magazines such as Cocina Fácil (Televisa) and Good Housekeeping (Mexico), and as senior editor for Selecciones (Reader’s Digest) in Latin America. She has translated and adapted content for Men’s Health and Women’s Health, and coordinated Spanish editions of art and gastronomy books for publishers such as Könemann and Taschen. She is co-author of the internationally awarded book Chablé and currently works independently, combining writing, cooking, and editorial projects. • Journalists:
-
• Journalist:
Víctor R. Rodríguez
Victor R. Rodriguez is a journalist, photographer, and producer from Mexicali with over 15 years of experience in news reporting. His passion for nature led him to extensively cover the vaquita, producing the short documentary Sea Trip: Odisea para Salvar a la Vaquita Marina, which received awards at the Ensenada Film Festival and the Fauna Film Festival of Tepoztlán. He was also honored with the best photography award in the National Photographic Contest on Human Rights launched in 2007 by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. In written journalism, he has collaborated with national and international media outlets such as Gatopardo, Radio Bilingüe (US), Noro, Climate Tracker, Reporte Índigo, Hakai Magazine, Vice Latinoamérica, Atlas Acuática, Son Playas, Ocean Room, and Playboy México. -
• Journalist:
Raquel Zapien Osuna
Raquel Zapien Osuna is a journalist from Mazatlán, Sinaloa. In 2019, she founded Son Playas, the first independent environmental news outlet in the state. Over the past 25 years, she has contributed to regional and national print, digital, and broadcast media, including Noroeste, El Debate, El Sol, Semanario Río Doce, Grupo ACIR, and Pie de Página. She is a member of both the Mexican Network of Science Journalists and the Mexican Network of Environmental Journalists. -
• Photo:
Eunice Adorno
Eunice Adorno Works across documentary photography and other artistic disciplines. Her practice connects with diverse histories, landscapes, and regions in Mexico that are deeply tied to the past and marked by an absence of memory. From this perspective, her work emerges from a search through archives, images, stories, and other materials that enable the reconstruction of alternative narratives. Her solo exhibitions include Casa Estudiantil Octubre Rojo at the Centro Cultural Universitario Tlatelolco and Desandar at the Museo de la Ciudad de México. She has been a recipient of the Jóvenes Creadores grant from the National Fund for Culture and the Arts (FONCA) and has been part of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte. Adorno has participated in various photography festivals and exhibited her work in Mexico and abroad. She is currently developing the long-term project Las aguas eran salvajes (The Waters Were Wild), which explores abandoned postmodern hydraulic engineering structures across Mexico. Photo:
Eunice Adorno, Eduardo Hernández Montoya, Cruz Morales, Octavio Aburto, Iván Carrillo, Víctor R. Rodríguez, María de la Cruz Morales García, Brayan Artigas Gutiérrez
-
• Infographic editor:
Luis Miguel Cruz Ceballos
Luis Miguel de la Cruz studied Graphic Design at the Technological University of Mexico (UNITEC) and Architecture at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). He served as Art and Photography Coordinator at the newspapers El Universal, Centro, and Récord, and has collaborated with national and international magazines and publishing houses. His work as a visual journalist has been recognized with nine Society for News Design (SND) awards for graphic excellence and two Society of Publication Designers (SPD) awards. He was Head of Advertising Design at the Fondo de Cultura Económica (FCE), where he directed visual communication projects related to cultural programming and editorial promotion. In 2008, he received the award for best exhibition stand at the Guadalajara International Book Fair. He currently works as Art Director at dataMares. • Scientific Advice:
Catalina López Sagástegui, Fabio Favoretto, Eduardo León Solorzano
• Special Acknowledgments:
dataMares
El Centro para Estudios Culturales y Ecológicos de Bahía Kino de Prescott College
Programa Marino del Golfo de California
Benigno Gustavo Guerrero Martínez
Ana Crisol Mendez Medina
Alondra Isaías León Vega
Miguel Ángel Alcantar Leyva