Centres

SET Women - Leicestershire Women in Science Engineering & Technology

e-Book - Dr Sophie Hebden - Science Journalist

"Science journalism is career to be proud of, because you are constantly developing a skill. I get a sense of satisfaction as my writing and editing improves."

Sophie has loved science since she was a child, probably due to the contagious enthusiasm of her father, an electronic engineer. "I think I found science easy and enjoyable because of my father's influence earlier on in teaching me the scientific explanation of things."

At school, she completed physics, maths and geography A-levels and went on to achieve a first for her Physics with Astrophysics degree at Birmingham University. She then chose to study space physics for her PhD programme at the University of Leicester. She studied the Earth's ionosphere, an upper layer of our atmosphere that allows radio waves to bounce around the world. Her work focused on some experiments done in Norway using man-made radio waves to heat the ionosphere and cause temporary instabilities and changes in the way it behaves.

Sophie is not the first person to decide that the life of a research scientist was not for her, and during her postgraduate work she explored the many other options available to science graduates. "I decided that I would enjoy being a science journalist." By the time she had successfully passed her three-hour PhD viva and was awarded her doctorate, she had been accepted onto the one-year science journalism Masters programme at Imperial College, London. But before starting this intense course, she got married and enjoyed a well-earned camping honeymoon in Scotland.

At Imperial, Sophie was eager to jump into the role of a science communicator and writer. "Definitely the most important factor for getting a job is experience. You need to get stories published and be ready to work for free doing placements until you are offered a job." She quickly landed a part-time job in the Nature press office, one of the world's most prestigious scientific journals and source of much of the science news reported in the UK press.

She also started an innovative new radio programme with two friends at Imperial. They called their show Imperial Mints, and it was a series of informal interviews with prominent scientists and Imperial graduates about their lives. Their first interviewee was quirky biologist and writer Olivia Judson, author of Dr Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation, an agony-aunt styled book about reproduction in the animal kingdom. After two struggles with faulty recording equipment and then Olivia's laryngitis, it looked like the show would never happen! But it did, and it launched a successful run of nine episodes that included author and TV director Simon Singh who also studied at Imperial.

After completing the MSc, Sophie did work experience placements at the Sunday Telegraph and the Science and Development Network (SciDev.Net), where she now works. It is a free-access website that provides news, views and information on science, technology and the developing world. "Science journalism is very competitive, but if you are determined, you can find work." She is an editorial assistant at SciDev.Net, editing and subediting the many articles sent to the charity from its network of freelance journalists around the world. She also writes her own news stories for the website, including its popular Bird Flu Update. " I enjoy learning about a wide variety of science and development issues each day, and Iike the fact that we are creating something concrete in the public arena for others to use."

Sophie admits that she finds it frustrating how little science makes it into the more general public press and that some editors believe science for its own sake doesn't capture the attention of the readership "unless it's peculiar, or has a celebrity angle." However, in her current job writing for a dedicated audience, it is quite a different story. Sophie feels rewarded by her decision to leave research science and become a journalist. Her sci-tech news stories directly help developing countries make informed decisions about their economic and social programmes, a fact that she remarks happily "is definitely a worthy endeavour!"

Learn more about Sophie Hebden's work:
SciDev.net
About being a science communicator