Ed Yong, who was awarded the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for his coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, will present “What Pandemics Teach Us” at Boston College on January 29 at 7 p.m. in Gasson Hall 100. Yong also has been honored for his writing with a 2020 George Polk Award for science reporting and a 2022 Benton Award for Distinguished Public Service. He is the author of the bestselling books An Immense World, a comprehensive look at the sensory worlds of animals, and I Contain Multitudes, a groundbreaking examination of the relationship between animals and microbes. A staff writer at The Atlantic from 2015 to 2023, Yong has also written for National Geographic, The New Yorker, Wired, Nature, New Scientist, and Scientific American. Yong’s lecture, the Gerson Family Lecture, is presented by BC’s Lowell Humanities Series and cosponsored by the Park Street Corporation Speaker Series, Boston College Asian American Studies Program, and Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.