bio
Who am I?
Download PDF of resume.
I am currently a postdoc at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, as part of a new NSF program to teach scientists to do public education. Below is a photo of me with the other postdocs at the museum.
Here is a recent interview with me from the American Physical Society, detailing my career and my advice to other people seeking alternative careers in science.
I grew up among the trees in rural New Hampshire, and quickly fled to the trees of rural New York, where she studied social psychology at Bard College. I took the next logical step, and applied for graduate studies in physics. I finished my doctorate in condensed matter physics (i.e. material science) at UC Santa Cruz in 2005. My doctoral research focussed on making cheaper solar energy using photovoltaics made of semiconducting plastics.
Along the way, I spent two years in the Peace Corps in french-speaking Guinea, West Africa, where I ate a lot of rice, taught a few people about AIDS and sanitation, and got acquainted with various microscopic local flora and fauna. Leaving Guinea proved just as traumatic as arriving there, and to keep connected I helped found Friends of Guinea -- a nonprofit linking returned Peace Corps volunteers and funding development projects in Guinea.
While in graduate school, I fiddled around a lot in scienc
e
education, through science fairs, tutoring and teaching, coursework,
rehashing of undergrad lab manuals, and other such delights. I also
worked as a freelance science journalist, amassing a little list of
publications on a variety of topics
such as evolutionary biology, light propagation, and AIDS. I spent the
summer of 2003 as a AAAS Mass Media Fellow at National Public Radio
in Washington DC. Very fun.
While at the Exploratorium, I've been creating and teaching hands-on science workshops for teachers, writing and producing podcasts, and having too much fun for words.
When I'm not engaged in compulsive reorganization, I can usually be found on the dance floor -- I dance contra, waltz, swing, zydeco, and 19th century ballroom. I like hiking, cats, building webpages, Johnny Cash, and the color blue.
For more about me, check out my (extensive) personal homepage at http://www.drsteph.net
