Biology Week 2015: A career in science communication

With Biology Week 2015 launching over the weekend, Victoria Ellis, Senior Account Manager and our resident biologist takes the opportunity to reflect back on her journey from science to the wonderful world of PR.

Growing up in the Lake District with horses, dogs, and even a couple of orphan lambs from time to time, it perhaps wasn’t a surprise that I fell in love with Biology. When I was at school, I found it fascinating that we knew so much, but relatively so little, about the world in which we live. Taking the subject at university seemed like a ‘no brainer’ and before I knew it I had graduated with a degree in Zoology.

Only half of UK graduates end up working in a job that relates to their degree and as research wasn’t for me, I was acutely aware that I might have to give up my much loved Biology and do something else. However, whilst studying I also developed a passion for writing, and thankfully it seemed I was quite good at it too! Starting up a blog it became clear to me that I loved putting pen to paper as much as the science I was writing about.

It seemed that I was destined to work in science communication, and after some research I stumbled across PR, which sounded like the perfect balance between writing and learning about the latest scientific discoveries. When I found there was such a thing as agencies that specialised in science, I knew what I wanted from my career.

Three years on, I find myself at KISS, and a member of the Association of British Science Writers. We specialise in science and technology (another of my guilty pleasures). I’m out of the lab, but still in a job that allows me to meet the people on the ground, doing the cutting-edge research that makes this country’s R&D famous.