Class of 2010

Class of 2009

Class of 2011

Nadia Drake

A.B. (biology, psychology, dance) Cornell University
Ph.D. (genetics and development) Cornell University

Trees and I go way back. My first science experiment involved jumping out of one (with feathers) and trying to fly. Then, I engineered tree-forts. And now, I have returned to the redwoods of my childhood to study, live, and write.

I love the controversies, discoveries, and processes of science. But research was an imperfect career for me. My dissertation topic—the role of genomic imprinting in mouse growth and olfactory learning—was exciting, but the everyday labwork was not. I enjoyed writing primers on epigenetics for undergraduates, not designing primers for PCR reactions.

When I finally acknowledged the signs, my destination was obvious. I needed to return to what I loved: the redwoods, and writing. Now I can climb into those groves of knowledge and share them, without first having to grow them from seeds.

School-year internships: Santa Cruz Sentinel; San Jose Mercury News; Nature
Summer internship and first job: Science News (Washington, D.C.)  

 

Melissae Fellet

B.S. (microbiology and biochemistry) University of Florida
Ph.D. (chemistry) Washington University in St. Louis

I learned about science stories in an advanced organic chemistry class. In each lecture, the professor told a tale of an experimental adventure through uncharted territory. He always ended with a cliffhanger, leaving me eager for the next day's discussion.

Seeking my own adventure, I worked in a chemistry lab using an electric circuit to see proteins recognize their targets. I soon realized the journey through the unknown was not what had intrigued me in class. What I truly appreciated were the human elements of the narrative—excitement, wonder, determination, and discovery. Science brought me to writing, and writing brings me to new science. With each story I write, I fall in love with both the science and the experience of being a scientist all over again.

School-year internships: Salinas Californian; KUSP radio; Stanford University news office
Summer/fall internship: New Scientist (technology reporting, San Francisco)
Current job: Freelancing from Santa Cruz

Donna Hesterman

B.A. (history) University of Florida
Master of Natural Resources (wildlife science) Auburn University

"So, do you think you'll stick with this?" my sister asked. Over the years she's grown weary of my career shifts: military combat pilot, bird biologist, and now, burgeoning science writer. She thinks I moved every three years when I was a Marine because of some insatiable wanderlust. I still live my life in three-year increments because I married a Marine. Any career I choose must be portable and borderline addictive if I am to stay focused year after chaotic year. Reporting science news and writing about what other scientists do is bound to be more interesting than tracking, capturing, and relocating thousands of birds. Besides, for a mother of two, it's a far more sustainable lifestyle than flying combat helicopters. So yes, I think I will stick with this.

School-year internships: UC Santa Cruz news office; Santa Cruz Sentinel;
Woods Institute for the Environment (Stanford University)
Summer internship: Scripps Institution of Oceanography news office
First job: University of Florida news office

 

Jane J. Lee

B.A. (integrative biology and English) University of California, Berkeley
M.A. (biology, emphasis marine biology) University of California, Los Angeles

As an undergraduate, I was shocked to learn that biology majors did things other than go to medical school. Why hadn't I known this earlier? I spent the rest of college digging up fossils, chasing hummingbirds, and scouring tropical reefs for sea slugs. As I watched the ecological principles I learned in class play out right in front of me, I felt like I was discovering a secret world.

I loved my graduate school project on deep-sea jellies, but I realized that being an academic specialist was too limiting. Doing outreach work with inner-city students showed me that my passion lay in sparking an interest in others rather than in doing research. Science writing grounds me in a fascinating realm while letting me share my secret world with a wider audience.

School-year internships: Monterey County Herald;
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute news office; Wired.com
Summer internship: San Jose Mercury News (Kaiser Family Foundation health internship)
Fall internship: Exploratorium, San Francisco (multimedia)
Winter internship: Science (Washington, D.C.)

 

Catherine Meyers

B.S. (engineering) Harvey Mudd College

My parents often told me I was born with an old soul. I think they perceived, in their young daughter, the emotional stability and perspective of a more mature mind. But as I actually aged, I entered my early twenties consumed by a Peter Pan–like fear of growing up. This youthful anxiety arose from a severe case of career uncertainty.

I first tried out engineering, but I found the idea of sending spaceships to Mars more engaging than hours of debugging computer code. Indulging my wanderlust, I travelled to Ukraine to teach English in the Peace Corps. There, I missed science and technology. Science writing is the career incarnation that for the first time feels right. As I embark on this new path, my 'old soul' composure has returned.

School-year internships: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory news office; 
Monterey County Herald; ScienceNOW
Summer internship and first job: American Institute of Physics (College Park, MD) 

 

Sandeep Ravindran

B.S. (genetics and development) Cornell University
Ph.D. (microbiology and immunology) Stanford University

When I was a child, I caught fireflies to see how they glowed and watched caterpillars become butterflies. Nature seemed full of mysteries, and I became a biologist to unravel some of them. But when I got to the scientific front lines and studied how a parasite could take over our cells, the constant grind of inconclusive experiments wore down my enthusiasm.

As a diversion, I started volunteering at a museum and answering genetics questions for its website. I was thrilled when I helped people understand a concept or when I heard them say, "That's really cool!" After my Ph.D., I became an intern at Science Illustrated in New York. When I went to work each day, I once again saw a world full of mysteries. Each one was a potential new story to write.

School-year internships: Salinas Californian; Stanford University news office; 
San Jose Mercury News
Summer internship: Science News (Washington, D.C.)
  First job: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Washington, D.C.)

 

Keith Rozendal

B.A. (psychology) Rice University
Ph.D. (social psychology) University of California, Santa Barbara

For half my life, I thought mine was the last generation of Homo sapiens. My school notebooks, quoting despairing punk-rock lyrics and sprouting sketches of mushroom clouds, told of my resignation to a future truncated by nuclear war.

How did I maintain an enthusiasm for studying nature, history, psychology, and politics? In part, my participation in people's history—collective action seeking peace and justice—sustained me. Along the way came this revelation: science, if driven by humane values, can emerge as Martin Luther King Jr.'s "creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil."

Ever since, I've sought evidence of this blooming. Through my writing, I will bear witness whenever I see the better angels of human nature inspiring those who use scientific discovery to craft a hopeful future.

School-year internships: Santa Cruz Sentinel; SETI Institute "Are We Alone? radio program; 
Stanford Medical School news office (multimedia)
Summer internship: SETI Institute "Big Picture Science" radio program
Fall enrollment: University of British Columbia master's program in journalism
Summer 2012 internship: Vancouver Sun 

 

Danielle Venton

B.S. (biology) Humboldt State University

Aside from being useless behind a microscope, I'm in science writing for the variety. Like many a writer before me, I love language, learning, and talking about science. I love new experiences that deepen my understanding of the world and its people. Science writing gives both author and reader access to every field touched upon by research—which is to say, every field there is.

I've worked in science communication from many places: the redwoods of Northern California, the ponds of Cape Cod's National Seashore, and the caverns of the Large Hadron Collider, the largest particle accelerator, at CERN in Geneva. Every new place, every new project, teaches me something and broadens my perspective. The world will always have something new to teach us, and science writing allows me to remain its student.

School-year internships: Monterey County Herald; Wired.com; KUSP radio
Summer internship: Wired.com
Fall internship: Wired magazine
Winter internship: High Country News
First job: Reporter/producer, KRCB radio (Rohnert Park, CA)  

 

Susan L. Young

B.S. (molecular biology) University of Texas at Austin
Ph.D. (molecular biology) University of California, Berkeley

"Professional students" get a bad rap, but this never diminished my dream of being one. The seed was planted in the burgeoning bookshelves of my childhood, where I happily spent hours reading about horses, flea bites, and static electricity. This fascination with the natural world carried me to graduate school, where I studied the early evolution of animals. While there I found myself covertly reading about other branches of science, feeling guilty that my attention strayed off topic. Three years in, I uncovered the way to justify these mental wanderings and achieve my long-held ambition. I started writing for a campus science magazine, feeding my yen for new discoveries. I realized, then, that my indulgent explorations could be the key to my dream job, one that starts with a serious devotion to learning.

School-year internships: Stanford University news office; Salinas Californian;
Multiple Sclerosis Discovery Forum
Summer internship: Stanford Medical School news office
Fall/winter internship: Nature (Washington, D.C.)
First job: Biology reporter, Technology Review (Cambridge, Mass.) 

 

Sascha Zubryd

B.S. (psychology) University of California, Davis

I come alive when I talk about science. Whether I'm asking about marine ecology or writing about endocrine-disrupting chemicals, I light up. I've found myself vehemently defending evolutionary theory from inside a bathroom stall, sitting at a bar holding the interest of self-proclaimed potheads with an explanation of endogenous cannabanoid receptors, and discussing the causes of eutrophication in streams on a second date (he was a keeper, by the way).

It took an astute college mentor and the challenge of reporting about bisphenol A to point me toward science writing as a career. I had a hard time believing I could make a living doing something so interesting, so much more rewarding than listening to marketers pitch the environmental benefits of their latest drain cleaner—the one with "Toxic" on the label. What could be better?

School-year internships: Stanford Medical School news office; Santa Cruz Sentinel
Summer internship: Woods Institute for the Environment (Stanford University)
Winter internship: San Francisco Exploratorium (exhibit development)

Class of 2010

Marissa Cevallos

B.S. (astrophysics) California Institute of Technology

I loved Monday mornings. Around 10 a.m., white delivery carts with reams of inky newspaper would roll across campus, placing the labors of my Sunday night newsroom on three-tiered stands. The joy of watching my friends, professors, and the cooking staff flip through the pages was unbeatable—even by the quantum mechanics equations that were supposed to thrill me. I came to Caltech to follow in the hallowed footsteps of my physics idols, but I didn't expect it would be with a pen, notepad, and voice recorder. There were too many untold stories and fascinating people to sit down and study astrophysics for four years straight. Now that I can write whenever I want, I love every day of the week. 

Internships: Orlando Sentinel (Kaiser Family Foundation health reporting internship); Science News
First job: Health reporter, Los Angeles Times
Current job: Video producer, Catholic Charities West Virginia

Sandra M. Chung

S.B. (brain and cognitive science, biology) MIT
M.S.P.H. (environmental sciences and engineering) University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

I grew up believing I would heal sick people with my knowledge of science. I was a quiet, serious premedical student, but I became an animated joker whenever I had a chance to explain something to classmates and strangers. When I landed gigs teaching high school and undergraduate science courses, my time in the classroom and with students quickly supplanted my time in the lab. Through teaching I shed all remaining traces of shyness and developed a happy addiction to the "aha," the precious look on a student's face when he grasps another small piece of the fabric of the universe. My own "aha" moment happened when my mother called me for medical advice. Why didn't she call my brother, the doctor? "You explain it so I can understand," she said.

Internships: Idaho National Laboratory (Idaho Falls, ID); National Ecological Observatory Network (Boulder, CO)
Current job: Multimedia coordinator, National Ecological Observatory Network

Gwyneth Dickey Zakaib

B.S. (neurobiology and physiology)
B.A. (music performance) University of Maryland at College Park M.A. (kinesiology) University of Maryland at College Park

"Gwyneth, you wright so well."

Despite the ironic misspelling, something went 'click' when I read the message from my neuroscience professor. In that instant, I realized I wanted to write about science, not do the research myself. I had spent years trying to combine my interests in music, brain science, and child development into a fulfilling career. But I was more interested in showing kids their world through music teaching than studying how music shaped their brains.

That simple e-mail opened my eyes. I no longer had to strain to explore the world through the microscope of science academia. I could peer through the binoculars and telescopes of science journalism and see so much more. Now I embark on a new career path, one that will lead me to the far reaches of our universe.

Internships: Science News; Nature
Current job: Science writer, Alzheimer Research Forum

Tia Ghose

B.S. (mechanical engineering) University of Texas at Austin
B.A. (Plan II) University of Texas at Austin M.S. (bioengineering) University of Washington

"Maybe you should stick to theory," my undergraduate advisor suggested as he scanned my thesis. I had flailed at the microscope and the metal polisher for months, so he was surprised by how clearly I'd described the metal's behavior.

I took his advice and modeled bacteria. But while I loved the mystery, I was less enthralled with the drudgery of debugging computer code and my tiny scientific domain. I was mastering Escherichia coli but missing the world. So I slipped out of the lab and started writing about it.

My advisor saw my omnivorous curiosity and my writing skill, but he couldn't fit those pieces together. Science writing has done that. I can learn how metals crystallize or why bacteria stick, without sticking to any one thing.

Internship: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Kaiser Family Foundation health reporting internship)
Current job: Homeland security researcher, Center for Investigative Reporting (Berkeley, CA)

Olga Kuchment

B.S. (chemistry) University of Kansas
Ph.D. (chemistry) University of California, Berkeley

Growing up, I read fiction and wandered the forests of Voronezh, Russia, and the plains of Wichita, Kansas. These landscapes fueled my imagination. I became a scientist to explore the world and see things no one had seen. I discovered, through research, that experimentation and imagination are powerfully linked. Chemistry, which grew out of alchemy, seemed akin to magic. I thought of the proteins I studied as Calvino's invisible cities—crowded, ancient, unique. But I wanted to share these adventures and to travel more widely both inside and outside of science. While brainstorming possible careers, I took a class on nature reporting. I wrote about Point Reyes and the people who live there. Their stories hooked me. Becoming a science writer allows me to be part scientist, part explorer, and part magician. 

Internships: International Centre for Theoretical Physics (Trieste, Italy); University of Kansas news office
Current job: Freelance and small-business owner, Salina, Kansas

Adam Mann

B.A. (astrophysics) University of California, Berkeley

When I was an undergraduate studying astrophysics, I had trouble admitting to my creative side. After all, scientists are logical, analytical people who enjoy the thrill of pure research. I was not one of those scientists. In the lab I was a passive participant, my mind constantly wandered, and I soon realized that I needed something more...creative.

There's that word again. The one I wasn't supposed to admit to. But I knew it was inside of me and, after spending several years traveling, teaching, and experiencing the world outside of science, I was ready to own it. With science writing I can be an actor and not just an observer. I can engage in a fascinating world of information and simultaneously share what I learn with others.

Internships: Nature, California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences-QB3 (San Francisco)
Current job: Space/physics reporter, Wired.com (San Francisco)

Jane Palmer

B.S. (cognitive science) University of Sheffield, U.K.
Ph.D. (computational molecular biology) University of Sheffield, U.K.

My Indiana Jones tendencies bewitched me into science. Entranced by the physical world, I wanted to dig beneath the surface and uncover its endless mysteries. In academia, I burrowed into computer science, psychology, biology, and environmental science; outside, I rock-climbed across the continents. Eventually, a more traditional career path ensnared me, but the narrow focus and mundanities of research stifled my free spirit.

And then, science writing liberated me.

When I write about science, I still get to hypothesize and explore. But it can be about Saturn one day, stem cell research the next, and water pollution the day after that. Better yet, as a writer, I polish my treasures for all to see. With words as my tools, the adventure is only just beginning.

Internship and current job: Science news writer/communications coordinator, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado, Boulder

Daniel Strain

B.S. (ecology and evolutionary biology) University of California, Santa Cruz

My dreams of becoming Indiana Jones ended in a dodgeball game. I was eleven and skinny, and I got a black eye. I was not cut out for a life of evading tanks and cracking whips.

My new dreams started on a hike. I was sixteen, still skinny, and standing fifteen feet from a mountain goat. His coat was as coarse as steel wool, and he was big. I realized that when Dr. Jones dropped the sandbag, his moment of discovery was the real adventure. I followed it through ecological research and veterinary medicine. The more I learned, the more selfish I felt for keeping the mountain goat to myself. The sight of him on the shale wasn't just for me. I now want to share it with all the scrawny action heroes out there.

Internships: U.S. National Park Service (Point Reyes National Seashore); Science News; Science
Current job: Science and environment writer, Maryland Sea Grant / Chesapeake Quarterly

Janelle Weaver

B.A. (psychology/neuroscience) Dartmouth College
Ph.D. (psychology/neuroscience) Stanford University

Like a bloodhound tracking an intriguing scent, I've always sniffed out scientific knowledge. I studied among the granite mountains of New Hampshire before gigantic magnets attracted me to Stanford, where I glimpsed nerve impulses dancing within human brains. Once life as a narrowly focused researcher set in, I yearned to experience more. I evaluated the latest neuroscience findings as an editor at PLoS Biology, but after rejecting 1,400 manuscripts and fielding fuming phone calls, I sought a profession that involved more positive interactions with scientists. I returned to Stanford as a writer in training, and was delighted to find that scientists graciously impart their wisdom away from the pressures of peer review. Now, on the inviting shores of Santa Cruz, I begin a lifelong quest, one that will perpetually put my nose to the test.

Internship: National Institute of General Medical Sciences (Bethesda, MD)
Current job: Freelancing from Glenwood Springs, CO

Jennifer Welsh

B.S. (biological sciences) University of Notre Dame

If I won the lottery, I would go to medical school—not to be a doctor, just to learn. Then, I would head to space camp.

I wanted to be an astrophysicist in high school. While in college, I studied cancer in the lab and discovered a passion for infectious disease.

With my degree in hand, I shied away from committing to a graduate program. Instead, I tested my luck at a startup company in the biotech world. I spent three years developing antiviral drugs.

I realized I wanted to be a science writer when I spent more time perusing science websites than doing my job. I wanted to talk about more than viruses and toxicity. Having the freedom to learn and write about any science field feels almost as good as winning the lottery.

Internships: The Scientist (Philadelphia); DiscoverMagazine.com; LiveScience.com
Current job: Science reporter, LiveScience.com (New York)

Class of 2009

Cassandra Brooks

B.S. (biology) Bates College
M.S. (marine science) California State University/Moss Landing Marine Laboratories

I grew up in New Hampshire, spending my days in the forest and down by the river. At age five, when I started school, I couldn’t wait to finish high school so that I could go back to playing outside all day. In college and graduate school, I gravitated toward the biological sciences as a way to play outside professionally, in places such as Monterey Bay and Antarctica.

I thrive on the thrill of discovering the natural world, but I love sharing my discoveries just as much. Like exploring a tide pool and brushing aside the seaweed for my sisters to see what’s below, I use science journalism as a lens into the realm of science for the public to look through. Come along with me and experience the joys of looking under every rock.

Internships: Children's Hospital Boston; U.S. National Park Service (Point Reyes National Seashore); Seattle Times (Kaiser Family Foundation health reporting internship)
Current job: News editor, Antarctic Ross Sea conservation initiative (Boulder, CO)

Lizzie Buchen

B.A. (biology), B.A. (psychology) Tufts University
M.S. (neuroscience) University of California, San Francisco

"You're interested in everything."

I've heard these words many times—from my proud father, weary teachers, and incredulous peers. Recently, the words also came from my lamenting Ph.D. advisor, his head shaking with disappointment. After changing my thesis project for the fifth time in two years, reinvigorated by a fresh puzzle in neuroscience, I realized I was in graduate school under an erroneous assumption. I thought UCSF wanted to pay me to explore the brain and cogitate on the mind for seven years. In reality, they expected me to toil at the bench to generate new knowledge, datum by trifling datum.

Writing liberated me from this indentured servitude. Now that I devote myself to understanding and communicating the mysteries of the natural world, I am thrilled that my insatiable curiosity will never again be a burden.

Internship: Nature (Washington, D.C.)
Current job: Freelancing from San Francisco

Lisa Grossman

B.A. (astronomy) Cornell University

When I was eight years old, my imagination was abducted by aliens, and I never quite managed to recover it. Consequently, I spent my adolescence devouring science fiction. When I read Carl Sagan's Contact, I recognized my future self in its heroine, Ellie Arroway: I was going to be an alien hunter. I could imagine doing nothing else.

So it came as a life-jarring shock when, while studying Martian soil composition, I realized that the once-stunning landscapes of the Red Planet had started to look like mere dirt. I'm turning to science writing to preserve my childlike joy in science, and to spread that joy as far as it will go. Rather than striving to be Ellie Arroway, I can aim to be Sagan himself and to inspire other little girls to be Ellies.

Internships: New Scientist (Boston); Science News
First job: Science reporter, Wired.com (Seattle)
Current job: Physics/space reporter, New Scientist (Boston)

Hadley Leggett

B.A. (biochemistry and Spanish) Rice University
M.D., University of California, San Francisco

A generous soul might label my path to science writing “indirect.” Others might call it crazy. Indeed, why would any sane person spend four years in medical school, enduring sleep-deprived call nights and endless hours of studying, only to retire her stethoscope upon graduation?

I could plead insanity, or I could tell the truth. I found medicine fascinating, challenging, at times even exhilarating, but writing has always been my secret dream, the impractical aspiration I never quite let myself consider. In science writing, I’ve discovered my middle path: enough writing to fulfill my creative spirit, enough science to satisfy my curious brain. My pen won’t touch a prescription pad any time soon, but beyond the hospital walls, I look forward to blank pages and open spaces.

Internship: Wired.com (San Francisco)
Current job: Freelancing from Seattle

Stephanie Pappas

B.A. (psychology) University of South Carolina

I made my way to California incrementally, hop-skipping from the sand hills of South Carolina to the thin-aired Rockies, and finally alighting in the redwood forests of Santa Cruz.

My journey into science writing has been much the same. I rebelled against crunching numbers in a neuroscience lab; instead, I spent valuable data-gathering time listening to the life stories of our study participants. Concluding that I was more interested in people than in science, I landed in education. I taught children with autism, but I found that I wanted to know how their brains worked. My mistake was in believing that science and people occupy separate spheres. Science writing is my way of exploring both. And whether I find myself in South Carolina or Santa Cruz, I know there will be stories to tell.

Internship: Stanford University School of Medicine
Current job: Senior reporter, LiveScience.com (Denver)

Emmanuel Romero

B.S. (biology, with honors) San Francisco State University

Writing about science makes me feel like Dick York from a famous episode of The Twilight Zone. We both flipped a coin that landed on neither heads nor tails.

Am I a scientist? A creative writer? I came close to an answer in my community theater in San Francisco. There, the two joined in unholy matrimony—I wrote a futuristic play about robotic boyfriends (translation: love slaves). People laughed, cried, and learned that isotopes are natural variations of the same element differing in atomic mass.

I'm now a writer, but I'll never stop being a scientist. I researched infectious blindness in Ethiopia, and I manufactured biochemical reagents. I worked at the cutting edge, but I'd rather educate people on how deeply that edge penetrates.

I also hope to become telepathic, just like Dick York.

Internships: California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (San Francisco); Children's Hospital Boston; Cleveland Plain Dealer (Kaiser Family Foundation health reporting internship); California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences-QB3 (San Francisco)
Current job: Health writer, Brafton news content marketing

Kayvon Sharghi

B.S. (biochemistry) California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Certificate (editing) University of Washington

Before graduating from university with a science degree, I received the best advice of my life: “You should be a writer.” That didn’t come from any adviser; it came from a Nobel laureate. The funny thing is that I was interviewing the chemistry Nobelist on camera when he said it. Nothing was mentioned of my potential to be the next Charlie Rose, but he saw in me something else I had always wanted to become.

With his encouragement, I abandoned the lab and continued my foray into multimedia. I have found that it works hand-in-hand with writing to create memorable pieces that help people understand science in a way that’s impossible through words alone. So whether in written or recorded form, whether photographed or podcasted, I hope to make science a part of our lives.

Internships: National Superconducting Cyclotron Lab, multimedia (East Lansing, MI); National Science Foundation (Arlington, VA)
Current job: Video producer, Earth Sciences directorate, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (Greenbelt, MD)

Michael M. Torrice

S.B. (chemistry) Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Ph.D. (chemistry) California Institute of Technology

Long before I encountered a distillation set-up or a pipette, I read a thin hot-pink book, How to Think Like a Scientist. Fixated on the title, I absorbed this introduction to the scientific method—the path that scientists follow from question to conclusion. Many thicker dull-colored books later, I was at a lab bench studying proteins in the brain that translate the chemical chatter of our thoughts. Although the science fascinated me, I enjoyed the last step of the scientific method the most: communicating results. From discussing my own data to explaining discoveries by other scientists, I had found the thrill of science writing. Now I’m leaving the lab and learning to think like a journalist—without the help of neon-colored books.

Internship: Science (Washington, D.C.)
Current job: Online news editor, American Chemical Society (Pasadena, CA)

Michael Wall

B.S. (ecology and evolutionary biology) University of Arizona
B.A. (history) University of Arizona
Ph.D. (evolutionary biology) University of Sydney

“If they don’t have legs, how come they’re not snakes?” I get that question a lot when telling people about my Ph.D. research on Australian legless lizards. When I explain that it’s all about ancestry—that snakes are merely the most successful of many lizard lineages to have evolved limbless, elongated bodies—people’s eyes usually widen. Evolution is a strange and wonderful thing.

An ignorance of reptilian phylogeny is no badge of shame. But the scientific illiteracy afflicting this country is serious, and I want to help combat it. After working for years as a biologist, struggling to reconcile my scientific and artistic natures, I now realize that my heart is in communicating science. In my reporting about the natural world, I intend to widen many more eyes in surprise and appreciation.

Internship: Idaho National Laboratory (Idaho Falls, ID)
Current job: Senior reporter, Space.com (San Francisco)