Science and Medical Writer
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Career Path
In 1995, frustrated with my progress as a graduate student in the organic chemistry department of Indiana University, I started writing articles for a local arts and entertainment magazine called The Ryder and audited a science writing class in the journalism department.
On the first day of that class, I had a signature moment that confirmed that writing was to be my career path. The professor walked in carrying a copy of the latest issue of The Ryder. After she introduced herself, she opened the magazine to my article and asked the class if anyone knew who had written it.
I tentatively raised my hand, concerned that it might be in for scathing criticism. "Actually, I wrote it."
She looked at me in surprise. "Oh, I assumed the author had already taken this class." Then she pointed it out to the rest of the class as an example of good science writing.
A few months later, I took a leap of faith and accepted an internship in the public relations department of the Cancer Research Institute in New York.
After five months at CRI, I turned down a job offer at the New York Academy of Sciences and moved to El Paso, Texas to begin freelancing. I covered a meeting about gene therapy of hematopoietic stem cells in Taos, New Mexico in February; the resulting article -- my first professional sale -- was published in the March, 1996 issue of Nature Biotechnology, entitled Gene Transfer to the Mothers of All Cells. I continued to write for Nature Biotechnology and still occasionally contribute. I quickly began writing for R&D Magazine, Chemistry & Industry, and others.
Just a few months after I began freelancing, I queried Science magazine and received an assignment to profile the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, a top-tier research program that was built up under the 35-year stewardship of internal medicine chair Donald Seldin.
Not long after, I moved to Bellingham, Washington, and my writing business took off, with regular work for The Scientist, HMS Beagle, Analytical Chemistry, and BioSpace, among others. I also wrote a series of features for Modern Drug Discovery, including a piece on the development of Viagra that has received a lot of attention over the years -- I like to think it was as much for the quality of the writing as for the titillating subject. Though it was originally published in 1998, in 2004 the article was translated into French and reprinted in La Recherche.
During this period, I also flirted briefly with business writing. How does a science writer end up writing articles about business management for newsletters of the Harvard Business School? It began in 1997, with a query put out to a Seattle-area freelance writers email list by Jeffrey Seglin, an editor at Inc. Magazine. He was looking for someone local to write a column called 'Obits,' which describes a once-promising business that went bankrupt. The subject was to be a Seattle-based software distribution business. Jeff hired me to do a 600-word article, and liked it enough that a few months later he recommended me to a friend of his who edited the Harvard Business School newsletters. The editor emailed me and in a 'what the hell' moment, I agreed to do some work for him. I had quite a bit of fun and was paid well for the efforts. I wrote stories on several subjects, including: effective ways to use a corporate web site; how to resolve conflict in teams; and using role-playing to improve communication. I pitched the last article because I was running a Dungeons and Dragons campaign at the time, and thought it would be fun to see if I could incorporate my hobby into my work. Though I no longer do straight business writing of this sort, I did pick up valuable on-the-job training in business reporting, which has benefited me as my interests have gravitated towards how economic and regulatory issues influence scientific research.
For several years (2000 to 2003), my bread-and-butter work was summarizing journal articles for the now-defunct web site HMS Beagle. Every weekday, I chose three biotechnology-related journal articles and wrote a short summary. During the same period, I did similar work for the news syndicate UPI, summarizing four science news stories, three days a week (now called NewsTrack). Not exciting work, but it kept me on top of the news. Best of all, it was regular and predictable -- a freelancer's best friend.
I also wrote a weekly column called This Old Lab, published on the web site of a bioinformatics company called DoubleTwist that later met the same fate of many of its compatriots in the dot-com implosion. For those columns, I profiled a new biotechnology laboratory technique, interviewing the researcher who developed it and discussing its potential uses, often with a touch of humor.
In 2000, I began to work with Janine Benyus, an author who I met while attending the High Country Environmental Journalism Institute in Montana a few years before. She edited the quarterly newsletter of the US Forest Service's North Central Research Station, NCNews. The most recent issue has two articles of mine, though my name isn't anywhere to be found: "Future Reality Check: Elevated CO2 and Ozone Alters Soil Carbon Cycling" and "Down, but not Out: Downed Woody Materials as a Measure of Forest Health."
In June 2001, I moved to Washington DC. For about six months in 2002-2003, I covered FDA advisory meetings and other matters for WebMD. I wrote about NIH's aborted hormone replacement trial that surprised experts by showing elevated risks of breast cancer and stroke among women taking the treatment.
In 2003, I also worked part-time for Equals Three Communications in Bethesda, MD for about six months. I was hired on because the company had recently acquired a new client, the National Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, and I was to assist in the publicizing of the agency's research. Bureaucratic issues held up that project, and after being underworked for several months, I reverted to freelancing full-time in January 2004. The timing couldn't have been better, actually. My fiancé had recently returned to the Philippines, and I wanted to spend some time there. Over the course of two visits in 2004, I spent about 2 1/2 months in the Philippines. My income took a hit because of all of the travel, but I viewed it as a payoff. My work allowed me to travel, and the personal experience and strengthened relationship with my in-laws is invaluable to me.
In December 2004, my fiancé’s visa was approved and she returned with me to the US at the end of my second visit. We packed up my stuff and then drove cross-country, back to Bellingham, where we now reside.
Since then, aside from getting used to married life, and getting married twice (once at the courthouse in January to satisfy the Department of Homeland Security, again in March for family), I've written for Technology Review, NASA's astrobiology portal, Windhover information, and The Washington Post, among other publications. We have acquired a house and a border collie, who keeps me busy going for lots of walks and training him to herd sheep.
Links
Indiana University Department of Chemistry
The Ryder
Cancer Research Institute
Nature Biotechnology
Science Magazine
The Scientist
Harvard Business School