Careers for PhDs: Science Writing

You enrolled in a STEM doctoral program because you love science. But if you’re like a large proportion of your fellow PhD students, you may be rethinking whether a bench scientist career is for you. Science writing, and science communication more generally, can offer a great way to keep the wonder of science at the forefront of your work, while affording a breadth of engagement with scientific discovery unavailable in a hyperspecialized research career. Numerous and varied opportunities exist in a wide range of employment sectors, from academia, industry and government to healthcare, journalism and freelancing. A panel of PhD-holding science communicators will discuss these paths, their daily work lives, and ways current PhD students can explore and prepare for careers in the field.

The panelists:

• Bethany Brookshire (PhD, Physiology and Pharmacology, Wake Forest U., 2010); freelance science writer and podcaster, author of Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains (Ecco, 2022).
• Jill Sakai (PhD, Neuroscience, U. of Wisconsin–Madison, 2006); freelance science writer and Assistant Managing Editor, Science News Explores
• Ashley Smart (PhD, Chemical Engineering, Northwestern U., 2007); Associate Director, Knight Science Journalism Program, MIT, and Senior Editor, Undark Magazine

This event partially satisfies requirements for the Graduate School’s digital badge in Research Communication.