Don Monroe

Overview

After my Ph.D. and more than twenty years of physics and technology research, since 2003 I have been a freelance science writer, covering a wide range of topics including biology, physics, and technology.

Education

2003-2004	New York University, New York, NY Science and Environmental Reporting Program Master’s Degree in Journalism
1980-1985	Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA Ph.D. Physics. Research on amorphous semiconductors
1976-1980	Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA B.S. Physics

Employment History

2004-present	Freelance writer (details below)
2004-2006	Guest Lecturer, Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting Program, New York University
2004	Editorial Intern at ScientificAmerican.com
2004	Intern at Physical Review Focus
2003-2004	Consultant, Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies
2001-2003	Distinguished Member of Technical Staff, Agere Systems Integrated circuit reliability, integrated optics
1995-2001	Member of Technical Staff, Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies Gate oxides, novel transistors, and reliability
1984-1995	Member of Technical Staff, AT&T Bell Labs Low-temperature physics, superconductors, optical fibers, Silicon-Germanium heterostructures

Writing Experience

[For a continually updated list and writing samples, please look under "Clips" at http://www.DonMonroe.info .]

• Communications of the Association of Computing Machinery (CACM): Computing stories and related science topics
• Cancer Target Discovery and Development (CTD²): Stories highlighting research from this cancer genetics network (a project of the National Cancer Institute)
• New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS): Dozens of meeting summaries for a wide range of symposia, mostly in biology
• Materials Research Society: next-day talk summaries of materials-science talks for online meeting reports.
• National Research Council: meeting report on the future of the HAARP facility
• Physics: Focus: (formerly Physical Review Focus): Journalistic stories on American Physical Society (APS) journal articles for curious nonspecialists
• Physics: Synopses: short summaries of APS journal articles
• Alexandria Summit: comprehensive report on talks and panel discussion related to precision cancer medicine at the 2011 Oncology Summit
• Systems Biology Verification (sbv) IMPROVER: Summaries for the organization meetings of a large scientific project to proactively assess human health and toxicology related to potential products.
• Science: A molecular evolution story for the news section of this eminent journal
• Scientific American: News items for a general audience with a scientific bent
• PLoS Biology: Synopses and a feature story for this biology journal
• Technology Review: News for this magazine on future technology published by MIT
• The Santa Fe Institute: Meeting summaries and stories for the SFI Bulletin
• SciDAC review: Describing projects in large-scale scientific computing at the U.S. Department of Energy
• The Scientist: News and a feature for this life sciences magazine
• Other clients include: Cold Spring Harbor Labs, The Rockefeller University, The University of Illinois, Drug Discovery and Development, AMDeC, ASCR Discovery and Columbia University

Editorial Experience

• 2010-2013: Science Editor for occasional issues of the Materials Research Society Bulletin
• 2007: Assistant to the Editor of Physical Review Focus
• 2006-2007: Editing of SPIE Newsroom articles for Form and Content Media
• 1999-2003: Founding member of the Editorial board, IEEE Transactions on Device and Materials Reliability

Service Activities

• 2019: Reviewer for NASEM report on Reproducibility and Replicability n Science
• 2015: American Institute of Physics Science Communication Award selection committee for articles.
• 2007-2008: American Institute of Physics Science Writing Award selection committee for works written by scientists
• 2006-2014: Jobs webmaster for the Science Writers in New York

Software Skills

• Expert in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel
• Confident in HTML, FrontPage, and Dreamweaver
• Comfortable with Photoshop, WordPress
• Competent with C++, Java, perl, LaTeX

Technical Publications, Patents

• Author or coauthor of more than seventy-five technical publications in peer-reviewed journals and conferences proceedings.
• Five U.S. patents on novel transistors and optical fiber reliability

Societies and Awards

• Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Included in The Best Writing on Mathematics 2021
• 2007 Winner of the Science Writing Award in Acoustics for Journalists from the Acoustical Society of America
• Merck Science Journalism Student Award 2004
• Member of the National Association of Science Writers
• Member of New England Science Writers
• Fellow of the American Physical Society (lapsed)
• Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (lapsed)

Unique Experience

Member of the five-person committee appointed to investigate the possibility of scientific misconduct by J. Hendrik Schön, 2002.