Science Writer
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Responses from Writer Richard Kerr
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| How did you get interested? |
I started out with an interest
in astronomy in junior high school, then it was meteorology in high
school, found myself in chemistry in college when meteorology grounded on
the hard shoal of calculus, and came up with oceanography in order to
broaden things a bit and satisfy an environmental interest.
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| What types of jobs have
you held? |
This job-senior writer at
Science covering earth and planetary sciences--has been my only
"real" job, although the U.S. Navy, a bit of research at the
Naval Research Laboratory, and graduate school should probably be counted
too. |
| What started you down your
current career path? |
In mid Ph.D. program I got the
feeling that academic research was not my cup of tea, at least in the long
run. I enjoyed mucking about in the lab, researching papers in the
library, and cooking, so I started looking around for what else one could
do with the degree. After considering science staff for legislatures or
environmental groups, cooking school, and science writing, I tried my hand
at writing by taking a couple of night classes in journalism. That worked,
so it was on to applications for a summer internship, journalism grad
school, and, with a bit of lucky timing, this job. |
| What are the positives and
negatives of your job? |
Positives: It's still fun
after 23 years. You get to skim off all the neatest science while letting
scientists do the hard work. The breadth is large relative to anything I
could have done as a scientist, and you learn a huge amount on the
job.
Negatives: Frequent deadlines and editors. |
| What information would you
give to someone just starting in your area of interest?
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The Boy Scouts got it right: Be
prepared. Take every opportunity to write and, if possible, be edited.
Science writing has greatly expanded in 23 years, but so has the number of
aspiring writers, especially those with some science training. |
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