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Stories by:
Karin Bodewits is the author of the humorous but tragic novel about postgrad life, You Must Be Very Intelligent: The PhD Delusion (Springer, 2017). Karin was born in a small village in the economically dead North East of the Netherlands. She moved to the wonderful, historic city of Edinburgh, capital of Scotland, to start her PhD in biochemistry. Despite a ludicrous intake of Irn Bru (a chemical drink unique to Scotland) along with mountainous amounts of fried pizza and dubious frat-ish parties, she successfully defended her thesis in 2011. Feeling like a lost soul, she backpacked round South America, not knowing what would or should come next. But something had to, because she ran out of money, so she started her first ‘real’ job, at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich. Having re-stocked her pocket, and feeling sufficiently proficient in the academic world, she quit a year later and co-founded the company NaturalScience.Careers. In 2015, she published her first book (a career guide for female natural scientists). These days, she gives soft skill and career seminars to young scientists, is often invited to speak at natural science events. She writes short stories, career columns and opinion pieces for magazines like Chemistry World, Naturejobs, Laborjournal and Nachrichen aus der Chemie. Currently she is touring around and participates in science slams and other events to promote her book. With her partner Philipp and their two sons, she lives in Munich, where she spends much time wondering what to do next.
Kirsten Grorud-Colvert is a marine ecologist at Oregon State University, where she has studied ocean organisms in the Oregon nearshore, the Florida Keys, and California’s Catalina Island, along with other marine systems from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean. She uses data from different species and habitats to ask, What happens when you protect an area in the ocean? And what can we learn from those areas to design even better protection? She also directs the Science of Marine Reserves Project and loves learning from her creative colleagues in science, communication, and graphic design. Kirsten has always been obsessed with water—that’s what growing up in the 120 degrees Arizona desert will do to you!
Laura Meyerson is a Professor at the University of Rhode Island in the Department of Natural Resources Science where she studies invasive species and ecological restoration. At URI, Laura serves as the director for the minor in Restoration Ecology. She teaches courses in advanced ecology, ecological restoration, and invasion biology. Laura serves as Associate Editor-in-Chief for the journal Biological Invasions and is an Associate Editor for the journal Neobiota. Laura serves on the international Science Advisory Board for Stellenbosch University in South Africa and is a member of the Invasive Species Advisory Council (ISAC) for the National Invasive Species Council (NISC). She is an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow and a Fulbright Fellow. Prior to coming to the University of Rhode Island, Laura was a staff scientist and research associate at the H. John Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment. She worked on The State of the Nation’s Ecosystem project, a report on national-level ecological indicators in the United States.
Ricardo Rozzi is an ecologist (B.S. Pontifica Catholic University of Chile; M.S. University of Chile; Ph.D. University of Connecticut), and philosopher (MA University of Connecticut), whose research has be focused on the integration of diverse formsin which human cultures know and relate to the natural world. To incorporate the practice of environmental ethics in research, education, and biocultural conservation, he has created the methodological approach of Field Environmental Philosophy and its application in sustainable tourism, with activities such as Ecotourism with a Hand Lens. Dr. Rozzi is Professor at the University of North Texas, and at the University of Magallanes (Chile), and is also Principal Investigator at the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity (IEB) in Chile. Based in these three institutions, he is the director of the Omora Ethnobotanical Park (Chile) and the Sub-Antarctic Biocultural Conservation Program (USA and Chile). He has published more than 130 articles in indexed journals, edited 27 books, and has given more than 400 presentations in Europe, Asia, United States, and Latin America. He is the editor-in-chief of the Springer book series, Ecology and Ethics, member of the board of directors of the Center for Environmental Philosophy, and represents Latin America in the International Society of Environmental Ethics.
An oceanographer turned evolutionary biologist, Elisa Schaum investigates what makes some phytoplankton populations better at evolving under climate change than others. She does this because phytoplankton are breathtakingly beautiful, and because they pretty much rule the world: they produce half of the oxygen that we breathe, fuel food-webs and their activities determine whether the oceans can take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. She is just now coming to the end of a position as an associate research fellow at the University of Exeter’s Satellite Campus for Strange People (more formally known as Penryn Campus), and is about to start a junior professorship at the University of Hamburg. Her life pre-science involved a lot of music and dancing. She also likes to write fairly horrific poetry (or, preferably, read splendid poetry) in her free time. Originally from Belgium, she has lived and worked in the Netherlands, Germany, France, South Africa, Italy, New Zealand and the UK.