Off the Path: Science Writer Evelyn Straus
Erin Currie
Staff Writer
Evelyn Strauss is a science writer. She is currently the Executive Editor of the Multiple Sclerosis Discovery Forum. She got her Ph.D. at UCSF in the lab of Christine Guthrie. She did a postdoc at Stanford.
Evi’s Path
Evi has always loved science and envisioned a career as a principal investigator, but noticed early in grad school that she enjoyed some parts more than her peers – especially those that involved library research and reading outside of her field. Furthermore, she enjoyed lab work and thinking about future experiments but didn’t need to be the person to do them. She says, “What I care about is the thinking, but it doesn’t matter to me that my hands are the ones that did it. By extension, I realized that it wouldn’t matter to me that my lab was the group that accomplished anything in particular.”
Evi ended up in science journalism because she “dreamed of being a student forever. Science journalism was a good match for me.” Rather than writing science for a newspaper, what many people think of when they hear “science writer,” Evi has had a variety of science writing positions. She has always worked on projects that allow her to have both depth and breadth. She has written a lot for Science Magazine and writes for the Lasker Awards every year, a task she loves because she has to master three totally new topics and write them up so that people can understand them.
Evi’s Work
Evi is currently working on a website for researchers in the field of Multiple Sclerosis, MS Discovery Forum, which will launch later this year. The goal is to consolidate information into one place in order to accelerate progress in the field. The website is in the start-up phase so Evi gets to fulfill many roles. She’s in charge of the substance of the website, working with the web developers to figure out what kind of features the website should have, putting together a scientific advisory board, and reaching out to the Multiple Sclerosis research community to get ideas about what content is useful to them. Evi’s job combines a high level knowledge of science with supervising and hiring staff and freelance writers and helping people write stories. “It takes administration, management, and organizational skills as well as the ability to read the literature,” she says. “It’s a hybrid kind of job.”
Evi’s Advice
Evi says that the key to breaking into science writing is to get your first clips. Evi suggests that you start writing anywhere. Write for Synapse or your local gardening newsletter. If you have a Ph.D., you don’t have to convince an editor that you can handle the science. Instead, “you have to convince an editor that you can write something that lay people can understand.” Evi got her start at Stanford by walking into the Medical News Bureau and asking for work.
If you do want to start science writing, Evi says that it is a mistake to write about a topic close to your research. It’s too hard to tell how foreign phrases might be and you’ll probably feel like you’re oversimplifying.
Evi warns that, in order to break into science writing, you need some financial buffer. You have to be used to making no money to get your feet off the ground (which isn’t really too much of a transition from being a graduate student!). It is rare to get a staff job or a full-time freelance position right away. Evi overcame this by going to the University of California, Santa Cruz, and attending their Science Writing program. At the end of the year program, she had full-time freelance work. Evi teaches there now.
If you’re considering leaving the academic research path, Evi suggests that you start by figuring out what you enjoy doing. “Don’t think ‘Do I want to be a this or a that?’ Start by thinking ‘What activities do I enjoy doing?’ Talk to people. Find people who are doing something that appeals to you. ‘What do they like? What do they not like? Which parts ring most true to me?’ You can’t anticipate what you might learn or how the conversations might inspire ideas about your future.”
Erin Currie is a third-year graduate student.
This article appeared in the May 19, 2011 issue of Synapse.
