As a child, I spent a lot of time in the dirt. I was always hammering together scrap wood and abandoned metal springs in my backyard, or probing under twigs and leaves to examine the slimy things hiding beneath. I was a pretty filthy kid.

I went to graduate school to study ecology because my research let me stomp around in the muck and build contraptions to study bees. My hygiene improved, but my childhood drive to tinker and dig remained.

Now, I unearth scientific journeys and construct stories about them with words and with sounds. I love writing about the latest mystery, the bizarre discovery, and the science that changes lives. When I add the sounds of radio, I bring my audience right beside me, inviting them to explore our world together.

Fall-quarter internship: Salinas Californian
Winter-quarter internship: San Jose Mercury News
Spring-quarter internship: Inside Science News Service, American Institute of Physics
Summer internship: KQED radio, San Francisco (Kaiser Family Foundation health reporting internship)
Website: ryderdiaz.com

Paul Gabrielsen

B.S. (geology) Brigham Young University

M.S. (hydrology) New Mexico Tech

I grew up among the stunning red canyons and mountains of Utah. My Boy Scout adventures led to a college major in geology. Through new eyes, those same canyons and mountains from childhood hikes became colliding continents and incredible ancient landscapes. Later, studying hydrology, I learned to see humble streams as delicate, nuanced systems that affect every corner of this planet.

The fun of science is discovering something that changes how you see a river, a mountain, even a grain of sand. I have a curious daughter, and her questions about how the world works are teaching me that discovery isn’t just for a five-year-old. It’s also for her daddy, who is learning that at its essence, science is simple and clear and accessible.

Now I can share that fun through every word I write.

Fall-quarter internship: Santa Cruz Sentinel
Winter-quarter internship: Stanford University News Service
Spring-quarter internship: ScienceNOW
Summer internship: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center news office, Greenbelt, MD
Website: paulgabrielsen.wordpress.com

  

Chris Palmer

B.S. (psychology and biology) Northern Arizona University
Ph.D. (neuroscience) University of Texas at Austin

I studied neuroscience to learn who we are and what makes us tick. Probing the properties of neurons—first in the visual cortex of primates, and then in the motor system of leeches—was supposed to yield deep insights into the biological origins of perception, emotion, even thought itself. Unfortunately, the biggest insight from my years as a scientist is that I am miserable behind a microscope.

Doing research did satisfy my obsessiveness and creativity; I wrote endless iterations of computer code and designed intricate leech obstacle courses. But as a postdoc, I found new outlets by writing review papers and editing manuscripts. This inspired me to write about the cornucopia of science at UC San Diego. Now my days are consumed by covering the discoveries and controversies that make science so intriguing.

Fall-quarter internship: Monterey County Herald
Winter-quarter internship: San Jose Mercury News
Spring-quarter internship: Nature
Summer internship: The Scientist (remote internship)
One-year communications fellowship: National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD
Website: chrispalmer.squarespace.com

 

Laura Poppick

B.S. (geology) Bates College 

I sympathize with people who find rocks boring, because they used to bore me, too. Geology called to me because I cared about the environment, not rocks. I loved water, mud, the homes of living things—but not cold, lifeless rocks.

Hundreds of rocks later, I changed. As I worked in Australia, North America, and the Arctic, I found entire eras bound in rocks. I didn’t care any less about mud and water, but rocks throbbed with stories of past environments. Fieldwork revealed more stories emerging from unexpected places, including dust and even septic tanks.

Science is energizing, and science writing gives me space to explore and share that buzz. If people find rocks boring or septic tanks simple, I want to change their minds. This challenge now energizes me more than science itself.

Fall-quarter internship: Salinas Californian
Winter-quarter internship: Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Spring-quarter internship: Wired.com
Summer internship: LiveScience.com, New York
Website: laurapoppick.com

  

Kelly Servick

B.A. (cognitive science and comparative literature) University of Georgia

I’ve always loved scavenger hunts. As a kid, I’d plant slips of paper throughout the house leading to a prize—or just to my hiding place, where I’d pop out and startle my unsuspecting hunter.

College felt a bit like a scavenger hunt for the right career, with cryptic clues hidden in textbooks and lectures. They diverted me from my English major and led me into the lab. But clues to my future were muffled by noisy EEG channels and a humming fMRI machine.

During my Americorps service at a Virginia state park, I designed a scavenger hunt to trick vacationing kids into learning about ecology. I loved organizing knowledge into a suspenseful journey. Now, by writing about science, I can map a route through complex research, leading my reader to something intriguing and unexpected.

Fall-quarter internship: Stanford University School of Engineering
Winter-quarter internship: Santa Cruz Sentinel
Spring-quarter internship: KUSP public radio
Summer-fall internship: Science, Washington, D.C.
Website: kellyservick.com

 

Rina Shaikh-Lesko

B.S. (biology) UC Riverside

M.P.H. (epidemiology/biostatistics) San Diego State University

My first reporting gig was with my junior high school newspaper. Soon I was more interested in dissecting frogs, so my reporting career went on hiatus for a couple of decades. Instead, I became an epidemiologist. 

The challenge of epidemiology is what drew me. How do we prevent illness in large groups? I came to admire the tenacious microbes I was trying to eradicate: measles, hepatitis, influenza, pertussis, and other vaccine-preventable diseases. But over time, I grew restless with long stretches of poring over dry data files. 

I got more out of the stories behind the science: the globe-trotting disease detectives who uncover novel viruses, the troubling deaths from drug-resistant bugs we thought we’d beaten. I want to share those stories, so I'm dusting off my reporter's cap—though it'll need to stretch a bit.

Fall-quarter internship: Santa Cruz Sentinel
Winter-quarter internship: Big Picture Science (SETI Institute radio)
Spring-quarter internship: Stanford University School of Medicine
Summer internship: California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, San Francisco
Website: rinashaikhlesko.com

   

Jessica Shugart

B.S. (molecular and cell biology) University of California, San Diego

Ph.D. (immunology) University of California, Berkeley

I got into scientific research to unravel the never-ending complexity behind seemingly simple things. Through the lens of science, boring colorless liquids teem with DNA molecules, and lonesome stars twinkling in the distance harbor families of planets. As an immunologist, I strained to see the molecular signals that turn T cells into murderers of microbes.

Yet as each tiny new piece of data came in, I realized that the part of science I loved the most was the telling of it. A plain old bar graph combined with just the right vivid metaphor could illuminate a whole new world—not just for my readers, but also for me. As a science writer, I hope to pull back the veil of jargon that too often separates us from the most human of endeavors.

Fall-quarter internship: Stanford University School of Medicine
Winter-quarter internship: Monterey County Herald
Spring-quarter internship: San Jose Mercury News
Summer internship: Science News, Washington, D.C.
Website: jessicashugart.com

Thomas Sumner

B.S. (physics) University of California, Santa Cruz

I never understood how people could say science is boring. Wall-scaling robots, battalions of white blood cells, Europa’s hidden oceans—science is where all the cool things are! Growing up, I ached to become a scientist, to explore the unknown and make a cool new discovery of my own.

In college I learned about the quirky quantum world and the particle zoo. I studied particles blasted from the sun that whiz around—and sometimes into—our planet. But I also worked with fellow students on social justice, and I realized science goes far beyond merely being cool. As I saw how scientific advancements can truly better people’s lives, my passion became helping others understand and enjoy science. So I packed up my magnetometer and set off to share this passion with the world.

Fall-quarter internship: Inside Science News Service, American Institute of Physics
Winter-quarter internship: Salinas Californian
Spring-quarter internship: Stanford University News Service
Summer internship: American Geophysical Union, Washington, D.C.
Website: sumnerscience.com