Matt Cimitile

Matt Cimitile, the first reporter at Great Lakes Echo, recently won national recognition for a series of environmental videos.

Matt is a 2009 graduate of the masters program at Michigan State University’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism.  He is now a writer and multimedia specialist for the United States Geological Survey.

He writes, lectures and otherwise communicates about science and environmental issues researched at that agency’s Coastal and Marine Science Center in St. Petersburg, Fla.

While Matt swapped his beat from freshwater to saltwater when he left the Knight Center, we still think it’s pretty cool that he won one of his agency’s Shoemaker Awards for excellence in communication.

It recognizes his writing and directing of a series of videos covering such issues as coral reef research, impacts of extreme storms on coastal environments, Everglades research and ocean acidification. It’s great stuff. Check it out.

Of course, those of us who knew him at the launch of his career expected no less. While here, Matt created this great multimedia project exploring species extinction and conservation in Hawaii.