William von Herff

I am a scientist-turned-science writer who writes about conservation, the environment, and natural history. I am currently a freelance reporter and an early-career fellow at The Open Notebook. 

I received my M.S. from the Graduate Program in Science Writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and earned my B.Sc.  in Biology from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, during which time I spent my summers as a bird field researcher across North America and completed an Honours project studying the evolution of red blood cell levels in vertebrates.

From 2023 to 2025, I was a staff science reporter for the Provincetown Independent on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. My work can also be found in The Atlantic, Smithsonian Magazine, WIRED, Hakai Magazine, Popular Science, MIT Technology Review, Atlas Obscura, Birding Magazine, BirdNote, and The Outside Story.