An Interview with Angela Herring: Northeastern’s Resident Science Writer

An Interview with Angela Herring: Northeastern’s Resident Science Writer

By Gwen Schanker

Angela Herring has had plenty of experience with interviews, although she’s normally the person taking notes and not the one answering questions. As Northeastern’s only official science writer, Herring explores any and all interesting scientific topics through research and interviews, and then shares her findings with the Northeastern community — and beyond — via the news department’s iNSolution research blog, the university’s alumni magazine, or the “News at Northeastern” email that students receive each day.

Herring has always been interested in both writing and science; however, she didn’t originally intend to combine the two. In fact, it was not until nearly several years after her graduation from Bennington College in Vermont that Herring realized how synonymous science and writing could be. At Bennington, Herring concentrated her studies on chemistry and literature, with a focus in poetry. While she was passionate about both of her areas of study, Herring felt it would be easier to find a stable career within the sciences, and she was right: for about five years after her graduation in 2005, Herring worked in a lab for a small chemical company where she helped make “carbon nano tubes and bucky balls.” Although she enjoyed the work at first, Herring discovered that it wasn’t quite the right fit; she felt more like a “cog in a machine” than anything.

The concept of science writing first “clicked” when Herring spoke on the phone to her career counselor at Bennington, who suggested she combine her two interests into one. Inspired by writers like Joshua Foer, Herring decided to test out science writing by starting a blog, just to see if she enjoyed the process. “I would find new research papers that were coming out try to put my own spin on it, and write about it in a way that people cared,” she said. Herring then used those blog posts as examples of her writing, which helped her get internships at the Harvard Stem Cell and Broad Institute. Herring also worked as a freelance writer for the Novartis Biomedical Research Institute, and not long after found her job in Northeastern’s communications department.

When asked what kind of work she does on a daily basis, Herring responded, “I ask lots and lots of questions.” Luckily, asking questions is her favorite part of the job, along with the variety of challenges her work presents. Herring attends daily editorial meetings, during which the news department makes plans for the day and for what will be included in the daily “News at Northeastern” email. Aside from that, every day is different, but always consists of some amount of interviews, writing, and editing.

While some of her stories can be very technical and therefore difficult to piece together, Herring is never deterred. In fact, she loves “the challenge of trying to turn something really complicated into something interesting, not just something simple and accessible but something people care about reading.” Herring admits that science is not everyone’s favorite subject, but says that her motivation comes from finding topics that are intriguing, even if they are not always directly applicable to readers’ lives. She believes that students and policymakers need to realize they can have an important impact just by caring about science, and doing science on a basic level. “I think sometimes it’s just a matter of making science interesting — no matter what the topic — so that people can get engaged,” she added. “The basic research is important even if there isn’t an immediate applied space for it, because in order to get to the applied space, you need to do the basic stuff first.”

Even though she concentrated on chemistry in college, Herring tries to branch out from that field as much as possible. “If I just focused on chemistry, I wouldn’t be exposed to…all the things that are happening out there, on campus and beyond.” In fact, she often really enjoys exploring topics that she knows little about. “Sometimes the things you know the least about, you can end up doing the best work in, because you can ask the questions that the reader wants to know the answers to,” she said. She also acknowledges the distinction between ignorance and stupidity; as a science writer, Herring is there to learn and to help others learn, so she allows herself to ask renowned researchers whatever questions come to mind, however simple.

When it comes to important scientific issues of the day, Herring is particularly interested in climate change. “I think [it is] a really, really important thing that people need to be covering right now,” she stated. Herring enjoys covering climate change both on a general level and with reference to specific researchers, such as Auroop Ganguly, an associate professor in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northeastern.

NUScience also asked Herring what advice she had for aspiring science writers. Not surprisingly, she recommended asking lots of questions. “Ask every single question even if people are getting tired of all the questions you’re asking,” she stated. “You’re the representative for the reader…don’t worry about how the scientist views you; worry about how the reader will be serviced by what you’re doing.” She also advises writers to go in with an open mind and to be as straightforward as possible: “if you’re getting really into details that are nitty-gritty, it’s likely that you need to step back…people spend years and years and years doing research on these particular things — there’s no way you’re going to capture it all in a single story or a single paragraph.” Furthermore, she encourages aspiring writers to get as much experience writing as possible. “Don’t have any fear to reach out to people and ask to write for them for free,” she recommended.

Five years ago, Angela Herring was recently out of college and working an industry job. Today, she has found her niche as Northeastern’s only official science writer. “I feel extremely lucky to be in this field and this position,” she says. “Whenever I get frustrated, I remember that five years ago I didn’t know this career existed.” She advises fellow writers not to get discouraged if their journey isn’t going down the path they expected. “It will take some unexpected turns and you’ll end up someplace exciting,” she assures.