Profile: |
I am a freelance science writer. In the past I have been a news intern with New Scientist
magazine, a reporter and web editor for the ATLAS e-News, a freelancer for publications such
as Physics World, Nature News, Chemistry World, Symmetry and Discover, and a ‘rapper’ on
YouTube.
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Staff Work: |
News Intern 4/10 – 10/10
New Scientist magazine; London, UK
- Write articles for news section of the magazine and website, ranging in length from roughly 60 to 550 words
- Find stories in research journals, blogs, and newspapers
- Post to the blog
ATLAS e-News Journalist/Webmaster 5/08 – 4/10
ATLAS Collaboration, CERN; Geneva, Switzerland, and working remotely
- Wrote articles for the e-News (for physicists), and outreach website (for a lay audience)
- Provided editing feedback for fellow writers
- Updated the website on a weekly or fortnightly basis: www.atlas-service-enews.web.cern.ch
- Improved technical aspects of the website, such as adding CSS and continuing the transition from HTML to PHP
US LHC Communicator 10/07 – 4/08
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, stationed at CERN; Geneva
- Planned and accompanied visits of US journalists to CERN
- Revised CERN press releases to highlight US contributions
- Updated US LHC website and supervised blog: www.uslhc.us
- Wrote articles for Fermilab Today, www.LiveScience.com, and Symmetry magazine (details at www.katemcalpine.com)
Science Writing Intern 5/07 – 9/07
American Physical Society; Washington DC, USA
- Selected stories and explained physics research from Physical Review articles
- Wrote for tip sheets, APS News, Physical Review Focus, and Physics Buzz blog
- Created and edited audio and video clips
Research Student 6/06 – 12/06
Michigan State University Research Experience for Undergraduates program; Lansing, MI, USA
- Worked with a scientist at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory
- Programmed, studied research articles, analysed compiled data, full time in summer
Received travel grant and presented a poster in the undergraduate poster session at the Division of Nuclear Physics conference, October 2006; Nashville, TN
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Other Experience: |
Rapping Science 2006 – present
No label as yet… - Black Hole Rap (December 2009)
- Rare Isotope Rap (June 2009)
- Peter Jenni rap (February 2009)
- Internal to ATLAS, a performance by eight Collaboration Board chairs for the outgoing Spokesperson
- Large Hadron Rap (July 2008)
- Over 5 million views on YouTube; in science and tech, #7 most favorited and #14 most watched (all time)
- Covered in print, web, TV and radio around the world
- N3UROCH!P (August, 2007)
- Spoke on the subject of science rap at the SciCom08 conference in Vienna, Austria (November 2008), COMEX3 in Michigan, USA (June 2009), and Move On! in Stockholm, Sweden (December 2009)
Volunteer Outreach Developer 8/06 – 5/07
National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory
- Developed documents used to teach junior high and high school students nuclear physics
- Instructions, web site
- Writing, designing, revising, editing
- Helped manage students when these programs ran
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Education and Honors |
Michigan State University 2003-2007
- Dual Degree: Professional Writing B.A., Physics B.A. (Honors)Alumni Distinguished Commended Scholar (MSU)
- Phi Beta Kappa
- Honors College (MSU)
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Skills: |
- Writing:
- articles, published in Discover and New Scientist in addition to the publications mentioned above. For full list, see www.katemcalpine.com/articles.html
- reports, web pages and sites, slide shows, essays, lyrics
- ability to tailor writing for a variety of different audiences
- Coordination:
- Peter Jenni rap – Nine Collaboration Board chairs sent me text summarizing their time working with Spokesperson Peter Jenni.
I wrote rhyming lyrics for each of them, received revisions and feedback from the Chairs, and combined the sections into a rap that we could all agree upon. As the eight performers (one not available) were scattered around the world, I made personalized tracks for each of them to practice with independently.
For our one rehearsal, I determined a time when all of these busy men and women were available and booked a conference room at CERN, my first time meeting many of them face-to-face.
- Software Proficiencies: Microsoft Office, particularly Word, Excel, and Powerpoint; Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver, some knowledge of Flash; Audacity, Windows Movie Maker
- Languages: HTML, CSS, French
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