they've learned something." In 2010, 2012, and 2016/17 Schwarcz was nominated by McGill as one of the USA Science and Engineering Festival's Nifty Fifty Speakers. . Schwarcz began his media career in 1980 after meeting Montreal Gazette reporter Ted Blackman at the Man and His World exhibition when he was demonstrating how to make polyurethane from two liquids. Blackman reported on the demonstration and made a significant error. Schwarcz wrote to the Gazette , pointing out the error, and Blackman printed a retraction. Radio station CJAD picked up the story and called Schwarcz to talk about it on air. The following week another scientific issue arose and he was called on again; this led to regular collaborations and to his own weekly radio show (The Dr. Joe Show), which also ran on Toronto's CFRB for about two years. Schwarcz has appeared hundreds of times on Canadian television and radio, including his single-season show about common foods called Science to Go on the Canadian Discovery Channel. He writes a weekly column for the Montreal Gazette called The Right Chemistry and a monthly column in the Canadian Chemical News. He is one of the spokespersons for ScienceUpFirst, a science communication initiative aiming at reducing the impact of COVID misinformation online. In 1999 Schwarcz was awarded the Grady-Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry for the Public. At the time, he was the first non-American to win the award. He was the joint winner of the 2014 Center for Skeptical Inquiry Robert P Balles Prize for skeptical thinking for his book Is This a Fact? Schwarcz has honorary doctorates from Athabasca University (2002), Cape Breton University (2011), and Simon Fraser University (2019). Personal life Schwarcz and his wife Alice were married in 1973 and have three children. Alice died in March 2016. Awards Royal Society of Canada, McNeil Medal for outstanding ability to promote and communicate science to students and to the public within Canada. (shared with David Harpp & Ariel Fenster) (1992) American Chemical Society, James T. Grady-James H. Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry (1999) Honorary Doctorate of Science, Athabasca University (2002) Royal Canadian Institute, Sandford Fleming Medal (2005) Society of Chemical Industry, Purvis Memorial Award (2010) Chemical Institute of Canada, Montreal Medal (2010) In 2014 the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSICOP) presented Schwarcz the Robert B. Balles Prize in Critical Thinking for Is That a Fact? which "unflinchingly takes on all manner of