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Times veteran Russell Goldman will join the desk as lead news editor in September. Read more in the below note from Science editor, Bill Wasik.
In recent years, desks at The Times have been encouraged to appoint a lead news editor: someone to serve as the main point of contact on news and work with the desk’s whole team, editors and writers alike, to find ways to make their daily coverage as urgent and vital as possible. I am thrilled to announce that Russell Goldman, a 12-year veteran of the International desk, has agreed to take on that role for Science, with the title of news director. 
For the past two years, Russell has been the International desk’s senior global news editor, helping to set the desk’s daily news agenda on many of the report’s biggest stories, including the wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Iran, as well as advancing the effort to make the report more live, visual and explanatory.
Previously, Russell was a regional Middle East editor, helping shape the desk’s coverage of the most consequential events in the region, notably the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel and the war in Gaza. Russell also spent five years on the desk in Hong Kong, where he covered the protests that upended China’s decades-long governance of the territory. On January 23, 2020, he helped launch a live blog about the lockdown of Wuhan, China. He helped run what would become the Covid blog from Asia for the next 100 days.
Before joining The Times, Russell spent seven years as a reporter and producer at ABC News, where he was the head writer of “Primetime Nightline” and covered the 2012 presidential election. In 2013, he was part of two ABC News teams that received the Edward R. Murrow Award for breaking news coverage of the Newtown, Conn., shootings, and the Peabody Award for coverage of Hurricane Sandy. In 2017, while working in Hong Kong, he shared the Award for Excellence in the category of Breaking News from the Society of Publishers in Asia.
“Russell has always been a pacesetter for International, and for The Times,” said Phil Pan, the International editor. “He leads reporters and drives coverage creatively and urgently, because he understands how far we’ve come and how much further we have to go. He has a keen sense for news, audience and every kind of storytelling that can connect the two.”
Michael Slackman, head of the News Desk, said: “Russell is the real thing. He has first-rate news judgment, enthusiasm for innovation, insatiable curiosity and a devotion to our mission. The Science desk is fortunate to have him.”  
In our conversations with Russell, he has bowled us over with his enthusiasm, his good humor and, above all, his ideas — he has a gift for looking around at the world and seeing questions that readers might have, and an infectious energy that makes you want to go find the answers. 
We won’t have Russell full-time on the desk until September, but in the weeks and months to come, he’ll be getting to know all of you, learning about your beats and starting to strategize about how we can build better processes and muscles for covering the news. 
Please join me in welcoming Russell to the Science desk!
— Bill
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