PLoS Biology Team
Theodora Bloom
Chief Editor, PLoS Biology
Theodora Bloom has a PhD from Cambridge (working with Martin Johnson, on the cell biology of preimplantation mouse development) and worked as a postdoc at Harvard Medical School (with Joan Ruderman, working on cell-cycle regulation). She moved into publishing as an editor on the biology team at Nature, and in 1992 joined the fledgling journal Current Biology. After a number of years helping to develop Current Biology and its siblings Structure and Chemistry & Biology, Theo was drawn to join the beginnings of the open access movement. As the founding editor of Genome Biology she was closely involved in the birth of the commercial open access publisher BioMed Central, where she remained for several years, ultimately as Editorial Director for Biology. After a spell as a freelance publishing consultant working with a variety of clients she joined PLoS in 2008.
Catriona MacCallum
Senior Editor, PLoS Biology
Catriona MacCallum was the Editor of Trends in Ecology & Evolution for more than four years, from 1999 to 2003. At TREE, she was responsible for commissioning a diverse range of article types across the field - from news to reviews and opinions - taking them through peer-review and ensuring they were accessible to a wide audience. She brings this experience to her new role at PLoS, which she sees as a unique and challenging opportunity to work even more closely with the community and to ensure that high-quality scientific research is communicated more widely. Catriona grew up in Scotland and studied Zoology at Edinburgh University. She remained there to do a Ph.D. with Nick Barton, who introduced her to a broad range of population genetic, ecological and statistical work. Her thesis (October 1994) described how a habitat preference affected the genetic architecture of a hybrid zone. In 1995, motivated by a need to apply ecological and evolutionary research, she spent a year in South Africa as a postdoc with Rudi van Aarde researching the impact of edge effects on the restoration of a coastal dune-forest in KwaZulu Natal. Before returning to Edinburgh to take up a teaching post under Aubrey Manning, she also briefly helped with the meerkat project in the Kalahari, run by Tim Clutton-Brock. She became Assistant Editor of TREE in 1998, and succeeded Andrew Sugden as Editor when he moved to Science the following year.
Robert Shields
Senior Editor, PLoS Biology
Robert Shields went to Cambridge intending to do theoretical physics and swapped to biochemistry because it was easier. Postgraduate research at Sussex University was followed by research as UCSF on control of animal cell growth and at the then Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London working on the cell cycle. At ICRF he wrote numerous Nature News & Views articles which whetted his appetite for science communication. Moving into Industry and plant molecular biology Robert worked on projects as diverse as making transgenic plants, nematodes, manipulating lipid metabolism and enhancing the quality of tomatoes for pasta sauce and for five years was European editor of Cell. Robert moved into publishing full time and was for more than six years editor of Trends in Genetics before joining PLoS biology in 2006.
Jami Milton
Senior Editor, PLoS Biology
When asked why she was drawn to science, Jami cites the energizing effect of learning new ideas. This love of novelty fueled 12 years of neuroscience research spanning molecular and systems levels, including undergraduate research in neuroendocrinology. For her Ph.D. in Ed Callaway's lab at the Salk Institute, Jami shed light on the complexities of circuit organization in the mammalian visual cortex. Her discoveries continued as a postdoc in Cori Bargmann's lab at the University of California, San Francisco, using optical calcium imaging to understand how environmental and genetic factors regulate neuronal activity in the olfactory circuit of C. elegans. Now, she is impelled to direct her enthusiasm for science toward the effective communication of the most innovative explorations of biological phenomena that have interested her all these years.
Christine Ferguson
Associate Editor, PLoS Biology
Chris Ferguson is our Southern Hemisphere "representative" - born in Zimbabwe and educated in South Africa. She studied Microbiology and Immunology as an undergraduate at the University of Cape Town and discovered the joys of developmental biology as a graduate student at UCT's Medical School where her Ph.D. focussed on the onset of melanogenesis in neural crest cells. Chris moved to the UK in 1996 and undertook postdoc research in neural crest cell biology at Guy's Hospital, Kings College London, firstly in craniofacial development with Paul Sharpe's group and subsequently with Anthony Graham in the Developmental Neurobiology Unit. As a first step on the road to pursuing a career in scientific communication, Chris trained as a commissioning editor on the Trends review journals, after which she took up the role as Editor of Trends in Immunology and ran the journal for two and half years. She resigned to join the team of editors at PLoS Biology in March 2007. Chris is thrilled at the opportunity of being able to combine the love of these diverse areas of biology and communication in one job and all towards a very "open" and worthy end!
Janelle Weaver
Associate Editor, PLoS Biology
Janelle Weaver received her Ph.D. from Stanford, where she performed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments in humans to investigate how the brain extracts distance information from scenes to localize objects in space. Prior to her graduate work, she was involved in research ranging from fMRI and electroencephalography studies of visual attention and memory in humans to single-unit studies of spatial cognition in rats. Coming from a research background in the cognitive, sensory and behavioral neurosciences, she discovered that her interests spanned a wide range of topics and methodological approaches in the neurosciences and behavioral sciences. She was strongly motivated to become an editor in order to keep on top of the latest research findings across a wide range of topics, from molecular neuroscience to animal cognition. Having joined PLoS in 2006, she is thrilled to contribute to its mission of revolutionizing open-access to scientific information and maintaining a top-tier open-access alternative for publishing the most rigorous and important research papers. She is also excited about contributing to the efficiency, thoroughness and fairness of the peer review process. The most gratifying aspects of her job, apart from reading and critically evaluating manuscripts, are daily discussions about manuscripts and editorial policies with a talented and motivated group of colleagues, and interactions with academic editors and other scientific experts to assess the scientific advance represented by papers.
Elizabeth Williams
Associate Editor, PLoS Biology
Liz Williams received her Ph.D. in Genetics and Development from Cornell University and conducted postdoctoral research at Johns Hopkins University and Stanford University before joining the PLoS Biology editorial team in 2008. Liz brings thirteen years of research experience in cellular, molecular, and developmental biology to PLoS Biology, as well as broad interests across the life sciences. As an undergraduate, Liz worked with Dr. Rob Last at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research conducting genetic analyses of oxidative stress response and vitamin C biosynthesis in plants. As a graduate student working with Dr. Tom Fox at Cornell, she helped to identify and characterize protein factors and RNA elements responsible for translational regulation in budding yeast mitochondria. Her postdoctoral research with Dr. Phil Beachy at Johns Hopkins and Stanford investigated the molecular mechanisms of signal transduction by components of the Hedgehog pathway during fruit fly and mammalian development. Now, as an editor for PLoS Biology, Liz is very excited to be able to continue to satisfy her scientific curiosity, while at the same time contributing to the mission of making scientific literature available to everyone.
Liza Gross
Senior Science Writer/Editor
Liza
Gross comes to the Public Library of Science with over fifteen years of
publishing experience in areas ranging from wine appreciation to
particle physics. She was copy chief at Parenting magazine and specialized in toxics and environmental health at Sierra
magazine, where she produced a special report on the environmental
links to breast cancer. As a staff writer for San Francisco's
Exploratorium, she was inspired by founding director Frank
Oppenheimer's vision that giving people the tools to understand
scientific phenomena would help them engage with the world around them
and benefit society at large. Liza believes that facilitating this
understanding is especially important today, as sophisticated
technological advances trigger increasingly difficult public policy
issues, such as assessing the safety of genetically modified foods and
the risks of emerging infectious diseases. She's committed to the
Public Library of Science's mission of broadening access - physical as
well as intellectual - to scientific knowledge and discovery, both to
encourage public participation in scientific debates and to promote the
cross-pollination of ideas among scientists in different disciplines.
Stephanie Wai
Editorial Intern
Stephanie Wai grew up in San Diego and stayed put for her undergraduate degree, studying Biochemistry and Cell Biology at UC San Diego. Her undergraduate research ranged from cell signaling in tissue culture cells to wound healing in rats. Wanting a taste of the urban life, she moved out to Boston to pursue her Ph.D. at Harvard Medical School. Under the guidance of Rong Li, Stephanie studied mechanisms of cell polarity establishment in budding yeast. The lab recently moved to the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, where Stephanie finished her thesis work. In her struggles to adequately explain her research to friends and family, Stephanie developed a deep interest in scientific communication. She is ecstatic to be back in California and a part of the PLoS team, broadening her scientific horizons and actively contributing to the open access movement.
Sally Hubbard
Publications Manager
Sally Hubbard graduated from the University of Cambridge and came to work for PLoS the next day! At Cambridge, she studied Zoology, or "counted animals," as her friends with more cellular interests joke. Having spent three years unable to afford her reading lists, she is very keen on open access. While not at PLoS she enjoys experimental cooking and live music.
Patrick Goggins
Publications Assistant
Pat graduated from UC Santa Cruz in 2006 with a degree in Literature. Fresh from interning at a technology magazine where he learned about the bustling industry, he is excited to be working at PLoS. He is enthused by the youthful spirit of PLoS, and believes that open-access and free information is the way of the future. He is thrilled to be in San Francisco, and spends his free time writing fiction and playing music, which have been lifelong loves. An avid traveler, he has been abroad many times and lives to seek out new cultures.
Elliot Page
Publications Assistant
Elliot Page lived right next to Cambridge all his life, graduated in Physics from Lancaster, and eventually made his way back to Cambridge again to work for the Public Library of Science. Being a voracious reader, Elliot is very keen on Open Access as he can fill up his cramped bedroom with even more piles of reading material. In his spare time Elliot tries his hand at writing fiction, and listening to far too many podcasts to keep up with.
Richard Robinson
Publications Assistant
Richard is originally from Clarkston Michigan which lies between Detroit and Flint but is neither of those two. He attended school at Grand Valley State University near Grand Rapids where he received a degree in Anthropology/Philosophy. With a bit of archaeology under his belt he decided to try his luck as a professional archaeologist with an internship at Stanislaus National Forest here in California. After a stint in the most flammable part of the state, he decided that life near the bay was more to his liking and has since moved to San Francisco to make his way in the world. Spending his days somewhere between reading the likes of Chuck Palahniuk/ Friedrich Nietzsche and practicing guitar, it is difficult to be anything but relaxed and easy going. Even with a dream of having a PhD in philosophy one day, this endeavor can only be helped by seeing academic publishing from the inside here at PLoS and can be put off in favor of new experiences 3,000 miles from what was once home.
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