Scientists Simplifying Science

Club SciWri alumni with careers in science communication

Many of our alumni have forged exciting career paths for themselves. Some have transitioned into scientific communication as scientific editors at top journals, science writers, illustrators, and entrepreneurs.

Connect with our illustrious alumni to learn more about their career paths and how Club SciWri has played a part in their respective journeys.

Ipsa Jain is currently a faculty member at Srishti Manipal Institute in India. She joined Club SciWri in 2016 and has been a writer, editor and illustrator with us, and shares her experience: “For me, Club Sciwri was a playground where I used all the freedom to explore, experiment, fail and fly. I got to try writing, illustrating, maintaining a website, maintaining a roster and building relationships. It empowered me and supplemented my confidence levels after a tough PhD. All the values gained and skills acquired are part of existing work, and will be in future also. I recommend ClubSciwri to any aspiring scicommer as an enabling platform.”

Rituparna Chakrabarti is an Associate Scientific Editor, at iScience, Cell Press. She joined Club SciWri in 2016 as the Editor-in-chief and says, “Club SciWri provided me with the platform that nurtured my editorial skills and eventually guided my transition as a Scientific Editor at Cell Press. Not just that I am incredibly thankful to multiple gurus and friends I have meet here. They all have shaped my perspectives along the journey and gave me a deep dive into the publishing industry. The hierarchy-free community nurtured my diverse yet unique interests and allowed me to shape my career goals learning from other’s experiences.”

Amrita Iyer was pursuing her PhD degree in Genetics and Genomics from the Baylor College of Medicine in 2019 when she joined Club SciWri. She is currently a science writer at Tempus labs Inc. Chicago. About her experience of working in the editorial team of ClubSciWri, she says, “Serving as an editor at ClubSciWri helped me gain experience in project management, working with multiple types of teams and individuals. It helped me identify my strengths and weaknesses which I then worked on. The experience helped me develop my profile as a science writer and communicator.

Somdatta Karak is the Science Communication and Public Outreach Officer at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CSIR) in India. Somdatta joined Club SciWri as the Editor-in-chief in 2017 and shares her experience: “Club SciWri taught me science communication exists as an independent field in itself and there is scope for working in it as professionals. That definitely shaped my career journey in the coming years.

Vinita Bharat joined the club in 2017, she is a Postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Neurosurgery at Stanford University. About her experience with Club SciWri she says, “ClubSciWri has a very special place in my journey as science communicator and for running my own scicomm platform, Fuzzy Synapse. It provided immense support to my style of science storytelling. It is a great learning experience to contribute and collaborate with so many amazing scientists all around the world on so many different topics through ClubSciWri. I keep encouraging new talents to get connected to this platform as it enables oneself to develop and build skills further.

Arghya Manna is a comics artist, illustrator, and Ph.D. dropout. He began his career as a doctoral student at Bose Institute, India. He had been working on Tumor Cell migration in a 3D environment. Along with this, he was an active participant in several projects related to tumor immunology and cancer stem cell. After leaving the lab without bagging the degree Arghya found refuge in art and got involved in drawing comics. He is an enthusiast in History of Science and has been running a blog named “Drawing History of Science”. Arghya wishes to engage the readers of history and science with the amalgamation of images and texts.