Michael Balter

Michael Balter is an American science journalist. His writings primarily cover anthropology, archaeology, mental health and sexual harassment in science.

Balter was a correspondent for Science magazine for over 25 years, before being controversially dismissed in 2016. He currently writes for Scientific American, Audubon, and The Verge, and has previously contributed to LA Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, and Los Angeles magazine.

Education and career

Born on the Alaskan Aleutian Islands, Balter grew up in Los Angeles and studied at the University of California, Los Angeles and San Jose State University. He obtained his master's degree in biology from UCLA in 1977. As a student, Balter was involved in far-left politics and especially the movement opposing the Vietnam War. He was conscripted into the US Army and stationed at Fort Ord, where he and other members of the radical Progressive Labor Party, which aimed to "subvert and destroy [the military] from within", attempted to organize resistance to the war amongst soldiers. He was court-martialed twice, once for distributing anti-war literature, and once for disrupting a training exercise.

Balter began his journalism career writing for newspapers based in Los Angeles, including LA Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, and Los Angeles magazine. In the 1990s he relocated to Paris, where he was a foreign correspondent for several American newspapers and magazines, and began writing for Science magazine.

Balter wrote for Science for over 25 years, primarily covering anthropology and archaeology. He was the chief of its Paris bureau between 1993 and 2002. His contract with Science was terminated in 2016, shortly after he wrote a piece about allegations of sexual misconduct against American anthropologist Brian Richmond. Balter claimed that his dismissal was in reaction to this piece, which was the subject of what he described as a "tense, sometimes bruising behind-the-scenes conflict with [Science's] editors". He also highlighted previous conflicts with the magazine, including a leave of absence he took in protest of its firing of four women, and a blog post he wrote that was critical of Marcia McNutt, its then editor-in-chief. The American Association for the Advancement of Science, which publishes Science, denied that the Richmond piece was a factor in its decision to terminate Balter's freelance contract with the magazine.

Selected publications

• Balter, Michael (2005). The Goddess and the Bull; Çatalhöyük: An Archaeological Journey to the Dawn of Civilization. New York, NY: Free Press. ISBN 978 0743243605.