Andrew D. Bridges reports for The Associated Press in the Washington, D.C., bureau. Before spending two years living in Bulgaria, Bridges had been West Coast science writer for AP, working from the AP Los Angeles bureau.

Bridges previously had covered space science, exploration, and business for Space.com, a space news web site, and he earlier had reported on politics, science, medicine, and transportation for the Pasadena Star-News, a 42,000-circulation daily newspaper. His earlier journalism experience includes his work as a reporter and as an editor for the Glendale News-Press, in Glendale, California, and feature writing with the Westside Weekly of Santa Monica.

Bridges received his bachelor's degree in history and Italian literature from Dartmouth College, and he received his M.A. in Italian literature from the University of California at Los Angeles, UCLA. He has lived in Italy, the former Czechoslovakia, Somalia, Ecuador, and Bulgaria, and he is fluent in Italian and proficient in Spanish and French. He is the winner of a 1998 fellowship from the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing.