Sarah Studer

Education/degrees:

BA, Biochemistry, Occidental College
PhD, Microbiology, UW–Madison

Previous positions held: 

• Science Policy Fellow, Fuel Cell Technologies Office, Department of Energy (AAAS, ORISE)

Current position or career path:

By the end of my PhD I realized that I enjoyed talking science more than doing science and wanted to work at the intersection of science and the world beyond the lab. I became a science policy fellow (first with AAAS and later ORISE) in the Department of Energy’s Fuel Cell Technologies Office, where I provided technical expertise for the biological hydrogen production portfolio and supported other projects like competitions and outreach activities. That experience, combined with volunteering at science museums, lead me to focus on communications, and I’m now the communications specialist in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where do a bit of everything communications-related, from maintaining the website to writing research highlights of recently published papers to giving trainings for students and postdocs.

Advice for current graduate students and postdocs:

Classrooms and the lab aren’t the only places you can gain skills and experience – if you have interests and activities outside the traditional academic work, those can be great ways to build and demonstrate your skills, especially for career paths beyond academia and industry.