As the New Year continues to unfold, we’d like to share an update about the expanding of the Nature Network team and who’s going to be doing what this year.
As many of you will already be aware from her enthusiastic commenting on the blogs in the past couple of weeks, we’re pleased to welcome Laura Wheeler as the new Editorial Assistant for Nature Network. Laura is a Biochemistry graduate from the University of Leeds. She has been involved in jobs helping to communicate science since graduating, most notably working at the BBC as a researcher on the science documentary ‘The Cell.’ She has also worked at the BBC’s specialist factual team helping to develop new science documentaries. She is interested in making science accessible to the general public and enjoys most areas of science. Laura is going to be helping Lou with the day-to-day running of the site, including introducing mentoring for new bloggers, helping to administer our new subscriptions scheme for regular bloggers (details soon…) and writing more themed editorial pieces for this blog.
We also recently welcomed Jo Stichbury as Head of Online Communities for nature.com. Jo comes from Symbian Foundation, where she built a technical communications community for open source developers. She is an ex-chemist who was lured into software development by Psion, and has “built up a spectacular collection of now-defunct gadgets” throughout her career.
Finally, Matt Brown who helped set up Nature Network in its earliest days will be shifting his focus on the site. For the past year, he has worked behind the scenes on editorials and various admin tasks, including helping to set up new bloggers. He will now focus solely on the London hub, bringing you daily updates on science news, events and quirky historical facts from that city.
Lou Woodley continues in her role of Product Manager for Nature Network, and will still be visible on the site and available to answer any questions, as always, as well as working behind-the-scenes with the tech teams and on the nature.com blogs aggregation site. Jo Scott will continue as a part-time community manager, focusing now on setting up a San Fransisco “hub” and increasing our coverage on the West Coast of the US.
We all wish you a happy and successful 2011. Please don’t hesistate to get in touch with any questions or just to say hello – we’re always happy to hear from you.