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About Us
In a nutshell...
If you're a citizen: This is the place to find out about, take part in, and contribute to science through recreational activities and research projects.
If you're a scientist or a representative of a citizen science organization or community group: This is the place to tell eager citizens about your work and get them interested in helping out.
Want the details? Read on...
OUR MISSION
ScienceForCitizens.net will bring together the millions of citizen scientists in the world; the thousands of potential projects offered by researchers, organizations, and companies; and the resources, products, and services that enable citizens to pursue and enjoy these activities. We aim to:
- Enable and encourage people to learn about, participate in, and contribute to science through both informal recreational activities and formal research efforts.
- Inspire greater appreciation and promote a better understanding of science and technology among the general public.
- Create a shared space where scientists can talk with citizens interested in working on or learning about their research projects.
- Satisfy the popular urge to tinker, build, and explore by making it simple and fun for people—singles, parents, grandparents, kids—to jump in and get their hands dirty with science.
OUR TEAM
Darlene Cavalier
Cofounder
darlene@scienceforcitizens.net
Darlene is the founder of ScienceCheerleader.com, a popular blog that promotes science literacy and the involvement of citizens in science and science-related policy. She has held executive positions at Walt Disney Publishing and has worked at Discover magazine for 15 years, where she now is a senior adviser and writer. She has created national science awards programs, science education initiatives, and a series of science-themed roundtable discussions for, among others, the Disney Institute, Space.com, Sally Ride's Imaginary Lines, and the Franklin Institute. She also serves on the Steering Committee for Science Debate and is a founding partner of Expert and Citizen Assessment of Science and Technology, which engages experts, stakeholders, and everyday citizens in assessing the implications of emerging developments in science and technology.
A former Philadelphia 76ers cheerleader, Darlene does not regret the years she gabbed through high school science classes. She earned a Master's degree at the University of Pennsylvania, studying science history, sociology, and science policy to learn more about people like herself: "hybrid actors," citizens interested in but not formally trained in the sciences. Finding remarkably few opportunities for these folks to participate in science in any meaningful way, she joined with Michael Gold and Susan West to develop ScienceforCitizens.net to solve that problem. Darlene lives in Philadelphia with her husband and four children, who have made it a hobby to explore the rainforests of Costa Rica.
Michael Gold
Cofounder
michael@scienceforcitizens.net
As a telescoping-toting teenager, an aspiring astronaut, a science journalist, and a publishing consultant, Michael Gold has always been in touch with his inner researcher. After graduating from Haverford College with a B.S. in physics, he worked as a newspaper reporter covering energy, the environment, space, medicine, and biology. He served as the first staff writer at Science 80, an award-winning national magazine published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was the founding executive editor of Hippocrates/Health magazine, now a million-circulation magazine owned by Time Warner. He was a regional finalist in NASA's journalist-in-space program.
As a principal of West Gold Editorial for the past 15 years, Michael's clients have included Discovery Communications, Web MD, the American Chemical Society, PC World, the New England Journal of Medicine, and Thrive, a joint online venture of Time Inc. and AOL. And, of course, ScienceCheerleader.com. Michael is the author of A Conspiracy of Cells, a popular, nonfiction account of a scandal in cancer research. And in the true spirit of citizen science, during a 1985 visit to Australia, Michael and his equally science-leaning wife, Susan West, conducted a series of bathtub experiments to answer the question: Does water below the equator really swirl down the drain clockwise, as the Coriolis effect would predict? (Answer: More research—and more travel—is needed.)
Susan West
Consulting Editor
susan@scienceforcitizens.net
Susan West almost became a molecular biologist—in fact, she got part-way through a PhD at Washington University. But she also wanted to be an archeologist, a paleontologist, a physiologist, and an animal behaviorist. So she switched to the smorgasbord of science journalism, earning a Master's from the University of Missouri, Columbia. As a staff writer at Science News and Science 81 magazines, Susan covered the eruption of Mount St. Helens, the discovery of new life forms at deep-sea vents, the psychology of wintering over in Antarctica, and the accidental radioactive contamination of a Mexican town. She also wrote one of the first national-magazine stories on AIDS.
In 1987, Susan co-founded Hippocrates magazine, now called Health, which won four National Magazine Awards during her tenure. Susan has also served as executive editor of Smithsonian and the founding editor of the international travel magazine Afar. Since 1994 she and her husband, Michael Gold, have helped invent and refine magazines and Web sites, many in the realm of science and health, through their San Francisco-based consulting business, West Gold Editorial. She's proud to have been named Biologist of the Week for three weeks running the summer of her junior year in high school during a National Science Foundation program at the University of Bridgeport, Connecticut.
John Ohab
Contributor
john@scienceforcitizens.net
Dr. John Ohab is a new technology strategist for the Public Web Program at the U.S. Department of Defense. He also hosts the department's award-winning science and technology podcast, "Armed with Science." John joined the Defense Department as a Science and Technology Policy Fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2008. He was previously an association Fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health. John received his B.S. in biopsychology from UC Santa Barbara in 2002 and his Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA in 2007.
John was born and raised in Tempe, Arizona, experienced a moderately successful run in high school varsity tennis, and is waiting patiently for that elusive Arizona Cardinals Super Bowl victory. Now in the Washington D.C. area, he spends his spare time watching movies, producing citizen science reports for ScienceCheerleader.com, promoting urban forestry with Casey Trees, and miming historical statues and monuments at every opportunity.
JOIN US
We're looking for volunteer contributors and interns to help build out our beta site.
Are you interested in science, Web publishing, and being part of an exciting, creative new venture? Send a note describing your qualifications to info@scienceforcitizens.net.
