Senior Reporter, Money & Management
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Expertise: Facilities | Architecture | Energy | Sustainability | Campus management | Technology | Libraries
Background: Scott Carlson, who joined The Chronicle of Higher Education in 1999, writes about facilities, energy, architecture, and sustainability. With Lawrence Biemiller, he runs the Buildings & Grounds blog and assembles the annual architecture issue. A former technology reporter, he is a host of the Tech Therapy podcast, which also features the technology consultant and co-host Warren Arbogast.
In 2006, Carlson broke news that the FBI was interested in rifling the papers of the muckraking journalist Jack Anderson, which were held at George Washington University. His article led to national coverage and Senate hearings, and helped Carlson win first prize for beat reporting from the National Education Writers Association that year. One of his earlier pieces, "The Deserted Library," published in 2001, generated national attention for its coverage of the place of libraries in an Internet age. "Few articles caused as much of a stir among academic librarians," Library Journal said of "The Deserted Library" in 2003.
Before coming to The Chronicle, Carlson worked at the Star Tribune (1995) and City Pages (1997 to 1998), both in Minneapolis, and at City Paper in Baltimore (1998 to present). He has also written for national magazines like the Utne Reader and Dwell, and he is a contributing writer for Urbanite, an award-winning magazine that focuses on city living and sustainability in Baltimore, where he lives.
He has been a speaker at conferences across the United States and in Canada, talking about libraries, architecture, and sustainability. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, where he studied English literature, with a concentration on contemporary literature and utopian/dystopian literature. In his spare time, he practices judo and gardens organically, and he has started a local-food project in his neighborhood.
Honors: First prize for beat reporting, National Education Writers Association, 2006 | Special Citation, National Education Writers Association, 2005
Online Features: Buildings & Grounds blog | Tech Therapy podcast
