Personal Statement

Objective: 

To explain scientific topics in a way that is relevant, interesting, and understandable.

Background: 

After graduating from Michigan State University with degrees in physics and professional writing, I was so lucky as to land a job in my intended field, science writing. I started at the American Physical Society writing tip sheet items and articles for the APS News.

Before I had finished that internship, Fermilab needed someone who could temporarily take over as US LHC communicator at CERN outside Geneva, Switzerland. Ever since I'd learned that the particle physics laboratory was not just a figment of Dan Brown's imagination, I had wanted to see it for myself. My supervisors at the APS were all encouragement.

At the close of the six months guiding journalists around the nearly-completed Large Hadron Collider, writing articles and press releases, and updating the US LHC website, it turned out the ATLAS e-News, the online newsletter of one of the LHC's four experiments, was looking for a new writer and webmaster. I was keen to stick around for the big start-up. I'm keen on the whole project, hence the rap.

After two years reporting on detector installations and repairs, detailing data preparation and analysis efforts, and profiling ATLAS physicists, I snagged an internship with New Scientist magazine. I had done some freelancing before, but this gave me the opportunity to focus on finding, suggesting, and writing news stories.

Since the internship ended, I've continued reporting for New Scientist as a freelancer. I also reconnected with Chemistry World and have begun writing for Physics World and Nature News. Physics is my home turf, but I enjoy a good foray into chemistry, biology, earth sciences, and medicine when the opportunities arise.