April 26, 2004

New Science Writer Joins Maryland Sea Grant

A new science writer has arrived at Maryland Sea Grant, Erica Goldman. With a Ph.D. in biomechanics from the University of Washington, and experiences both in journalism and marine policy, Goldman is well suited to tackling the often complex topics that emerge from marine issues in the Chesapeake region. Goldman worked as a writer at Washington Sea Grant and at Science, the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), where she focused on reporting news and synthesizing scientific articles for the web. She also served as a Knauss Fellow on Capitol Hill, where she had an opportunity to observe firsthand the role of science in shaping marine policy on a national level.


Her interests in research and in writing came together in 1999, when science writer David Gordon spoke to her science journalism class. Though her graduate work was highly specialized, says Goldman, she found that she missed "the breadth of science."


Her interests drew her to Capitol Hill and to the role of explaining the marine sciences to a larger audience, where science, policy and public interests meet. "Sea Grant," she says, "is placed right at that intersection."