**Moment of Zen:** Watching the sunset over the Pacific Ocean, from the cliffs of Santa Cruz, California.

Good Questions

February 08, 2026 in Personal

Strolling along the central California coast often makes me feel as though I’ve entered a portal to another time, or at least a different season. Even though it’s early January, this picturesque part of Santa Cruz exudes endless summer vibes. Cotton-candy colors streak across the horizon while dozens of surfers bob in the waves below.

As Shawnee Traylor and I walk along West Cliff Drive, I take a deep breath and try to calm my frenetic mind. The work I did today felt a bit like the first time I ran a marathon — special, fulfilling, a big accomplishment — and exhausting. It was my first time hosting a professional development workshop for a group of postdocs, at the preeminent Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI).

**Get ‘em talking.** Science Talk attendees engage in a group discussion activity during my “Evolve your SciComm Skills and Career” workshop.

Science Talk 23: Find your People

April 30, 2023 in Science Communication

“Okay, you have five minutes. Ready, set, go!”

As soon as I say the word “go”, the room erupts. I watch 34 people (divided into pairs) talk animatedly with their partners, and I can’t help but smile. This moment has been a long time coming.

**A unique and beautiful phenomenon**. Snow in Joshua Tree National Park is a rare occurrence, and I feel lucky to experience it.

As you Walk

March 31, 2023 in Personal

My windshield wipers flick a mixture of cold rain and sleet as I drive. It’s strange to see snow blanketing the mountains just outside of Los Angeles, and I wonder if there will be snow when I arrive in Joshua Tree National Park later today.

**Examples of excellent science writing:** This shelf includes just a few of the books I put on the Recommended Reading list for students enrolled in my freelance science communicator course.

From Student to Teacher

November 30, 2022 in Science Communication

I stare at my laptop screen, trying to ignore the butterflies in my stomach. I click “Launch Meeting” and a Zoom window opens. One by one, I watch faces and names appear in the video chat. But they aren’t the familiar faces of clients or colleagues — the ten people on this Zoom call are students enrolled in a course I’m teaching.

Me? A teacher? Since when? While I have given dozens of presentations about my work over the past few years, I have never officially “taught” anything before. But when I gave a presentation about being a full-time freelance science communicator at Science Talk last March, Allison Coffin, president of the Association of Science Communicators, asked me about the possibility of expanding my 20-minute talk into an online course.

Sharing the story of my freelance career at Science Talk 22 in Portland, Oregon | Photo by Camille Collett

Science Talk 22: Tell your Story

March 31, 2022

There is nothing quite like being at a conference full of people who both love science and understand the value of solid communication. As soon as I walk into Science Talk, I can see that everyone here is curious, smart, and approachable. Even though I don’t know a single person, it’s easy to start a conversation.

When I sit down next to Tszula, a postdoctoral researcher in Physics at the University of New Mexico, I ask, “is this your first time coming to Science Talk?”

“No, I actually came to the very first one six years ago.”

“What was that like?” I ask. “Was it super tiny?”

“It was completely sold out!” Tzula says emphatically. “At the end of the conference, the organizers said, ‘wellllll that was a smashing success. I guess we should do it again!’”

I think about the demand for this type of knowledge and expertise. It’s affirming to realize that I am not alone in my quest to become a better science communicator.

Doing It

February 09, 2022 in Personal

Four years ago today I left my full-time position at UNC Research to start my own business.

Four years. That’s 1,461 days. It is also exactly a quarter of my adult, professional life.

When I left the comfort and security of my state employee job, I told everyone I was excited. But I was mostly stressed. I experienced a lot of self-doubt and sleepless nights. Venturing out on my own and navigating the world of full-time freelance work was daunting to say the least. Everything was a struggle: making enough money, getting enough sleep, finding enough work, exhibiting enough confidence. I lived off coffee, adrenaline, and tenacity.

Phew. Just thinking about those first few months is exhausting.

But I did it. And I’m still doing it.

Engineers work in the clean room of the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Tiny Electronic Voices

January 14, 2020 in Outer Space

They begin life as notions, as questions or hypotheses. In time they turn into elaborate sculptures of metal, epoxy and silicon. In sudden eruptions of fire and billowing smoke they are tossed up and out of the atmosphere, out into the cold void between worlds. Streaking like bullets across the immense expanses of the solar system, they carry armadas of instruments to catalog and analyze all that they pass — chattering away back to their human parents with tiny electronic voices across hundreds of millions of miles.