ROBERTA KWOK

Email: abqcsq@r.postjobfree.com

Website: http://www.robertakwok.com

Education

Graduate Certificate, Science Communication, University of California, Santa Cruz December 2008

M.F.A., Creative Writing, Indiana University at Bloomington June 2007

B.Sc., Biological Sciences, Minor in Mathematics, Stanford University June 2000

Writing Experience

Freelance Science Writer January 2007 present

Clients include Nature, New Scientist, Conservation, Salon.com, Harvard Magazine, Science News for

Kids, California, Mongabay.com, Loh Down on Science, and the San Francisco Chronicle

Won the American Geophysical Union s 2010 Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Journalism

Science Writer, Conservation s Journal Watch Online July 2009 July 2010

Wrote four stories per week about new research findings for Conservation magazine s website

Identified papers, found artwork, published posts to website, and moderated comments

Covered ecology, marine science, geology, climate change, and conservation

News Intern, Nature January March 2009

Wrote about new studies, conferences, and government hearings for Nature s news website and blog

Covered science policy and community news, including climate-change law and stimulus package grants

Contributed research summaries, news briefs, and two feature stories to the weekly print magazine

Research Communications Fellow, Idaho National Laboratory July December 2008

Wrote news releases and responded to media requests about US Department of Energy research

Produced website features on a variety of topics, including energy, space, archaeology and technology

Created lab s first research podcasts and set up Idaho National Laboratory iTunes channel

Reporting Intern, ScienceNOW March June 2008

Wrote 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 the 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, education and election night

Research and Engineering Experience

Scientific Programmer, Stanford University 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

Co-developed website robertakwok.com using HTML and CSS

Awards

Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Journalism Features 2010

Idaho National Laboratory Fellowship, University of California, 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

References

Available upon request.

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