Roberta Kwok
science writer
Download PDF version
Education
Graduate Certificate, Science Communication, UC Santa Cruz
Expected December 2008
M.F.A., Creative Writing, Indiana University at Bloomington
June 2007
B.Sc., Biology, Minor in Mathematics, Stanford University
June 2000
Writing Experience
Research Communications Fellow, Idaho National Laboratory
July 2008 — present
- Writing news releases and web features about U.S. Department of Energy lab research
- Covering renewable energy, nuclear power, hybrid cars, and mobile technology
Reporting Intern, ScienceNOW
March — June 2008
- Wrote six stories about new research findings for Science magazine's daily online news service
- Interviewed researchers and outside experts for each story, with two- to three-day turnaround
Production Intern, SETI Radio
January — March 2008
- Assisted production of SETI Institute's weekly hour-long science podcast, Are We Alone?
- Edited audio, wrote portions of script, prepared interview questions, and developed show ideas
Reporting Intern, Salinas Californian
September — December 2007
- Wrote two to three stories a week for Monterey County newspaper (circulation 17,000)
- Covered agriculture, environment, health, community, and election night
Freelance Science Writer
January 2007 — present
- Wrote for Harvard Magazine, Salon.com, Science News for Kids, California, Mongabay.com, Loh Down on Science, Biomedical Computation Review, and Research and Creative Activity
- Reviewed popular science book for the San Francisco Chronicle
Research and Engineering Experience
Bioinformatics Lab Programmer, Indiana University at Bloomington
September 2006 — May 2007
- Developed scripts to identify and annotate clusters of similar genes from fruit fly genomes
- Generated website displaying genome analysis results
Scientific Programmer, Stanford Medical Center
July 2003 — July 2004
- Developed software and designed database to support evolutionary analysis of protein sequences
- Set up Mac OS X computer server to allow file sharing and website hosting in laboratory
Ontology Engineer, Ingenuity Systems
July 2000 — June 2003
- Developed software to build knowledge base of gene pathway data for biotechnology start-up
- Managed an interdisciplinary team of scientists, software engineers, and QA engineers
Student Researcher, Stanford University
September 1998 — June 2000
- Completed thesis on identification of signalling element in immune response gene
- Recipient of Howard Hughes Summer Research Fellowship
Teaching Experience
Associate Writing Instructor, Indiana University at Bloomington
August 2004 — May 2007
- Taught four creative writing classes and two composition classes to undergraduates
- Designed course syllabi, ran fiction workshops, and extensively edited student work
Multimedia Skills
- Experience recording and editing podcasts and video
- Familiar with Sound Forge, Audacity, Soundslides, and Final Cut Express
- Created own website using HTML and CSS
Awards
- Idaho National Laboratory Fellowship, UC Santa Cruz (2007-08)
- Ross Lockridge Jr. Award in Creative Writing, Indiana University at Bloomington (2006)
- Omar Castaneda Fellowship in Fiction, Indiana University at Bloomington (2004-06)
- Phi Beta Kappa Society, Stanford University (2000)
- Howard Hughes Summer Research Fellowship (1999)
- Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Scholarship (1997-98)
Professional Memberships
- National Association of Science Writers
- Northern California Science Writers Association
- Asian American Journalists Association
All text and images © 2007-08 Roberta Kwok