Career Clips
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Science-Writing Days Lead to Materials Career Did you choose that job? Thaf s what I'm asked when I tell my scientific colleagues that I'm an editor. The underlying question is clear, "Why would anyone trained over many years to do research take a position writing and editing?" I explain that I simply followed my training and talents, and then stepped through a door of opportunity that had my name on it. I'm not the first and won't be the last to sidestep into a nontraditional career. Graduating students and midcareer scientists currently face unexpected professional choices as government, business, and world priorities change. Job pressures increasingly squeeze out the "free time" available to pursue special talents and hobbies. Thus incorporation of these activities into "day" jobs becomes necessary for job and life satisfaction. Exploring how career choices satisfy these as well as other personal and professional goals is the impetus behind CAREER CLIPS. As the editor of MRS Bulletin, my own career path fits easily into the scope of this department. In my career, I filter scientific information, and disseminate it to a broad audi-
t s part of a panel on alternative career paths held during an American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting, Elizabeth L. Fleischer, Editor of MRS Bulletin, expresses the pivotal role herAAAS Mass Media Science and Engineering Fellowship had in launching her editorial career. She attends several technical meetings a year to keep informed about scientific developments relating to materials science and to collect ideas for coverage in the magazine.
ence. Success in science goes beyond doing great research; the results and interpretations of the work must be communicated clearly so others can build on previous
advances. I help that happen with every sweep of my pen and click of my mouse. While my flare for math and science led me into the science track in college, the writing angle was an indispensable sideline that I didn't fully acknowledge until midway through my graduate studies. I should have known that I was destined for a career in publishing when I wrote a "book" in fifth grade, fully expecting it to be published. I should have heard the call when my high-school creative-writing teacher suggested a dual major in engineering and writing. And in college when I spent 30 (noncredit) hours per week working for the school paper, I should have seen the "writing" on the wall. Then when fellow students in graduate school spent the night running the ion-beam accelerator while I worked all night fitting copy into a 16-page community newspaper, just for fun, I should have realized my career direction. The first step I consciously took toward my less-than-traditional career came midway through my materials-science PhD studies at Cornell University. One day after an all-day experiment alone with the ion implanter, a friend suggested I apply
Resources for Scientists Interested in Communications Careers Media Fellowships/Internships American Association for the Advancement of S
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