Jennifer Ouellette is a recovering
English major who stumbled into science writing quite by accident as a struggling freelance writer in New York City. Now based in Los Angeles,
California, she is the author ofBlack Bodies and Quantum Cats: Tales
From the Annals of Physics (2006) andThe
Physics of the Buffyverse (2007), both published by Penguin.
Much of Jennifer’s work has been in the science trade press. She is associate editor of APS
News, the monthly publication of The American Physical Society; covers science policy for the Materials
Research Society; and writes for the American Institute of Physics’ TV project, Discoveries
and Breakthroughs in Science, as well as its Inside Science News Service. She was also a
contributing editor for the now-defunct The Industrial Physicist magazine; a 1997
article on concert hall acoustics garnered her an award in science writing from the Acoustical Society of America. She is a card-carrying
member of the National
Association of Science Writers, and holds a black belt in Niseido jujitsu.
Jennifer is equally adept at writing about science in the popular press, most notably for Discover, Salon, and On Earth.
She has written about such varied topics as the acoustics of Mayan pyramids and New York City subways; fractal patterns in the paintings
of Jackson Pollock; and the precarious pitfalls of pseudoscience.
A strong advocate of public outreach and education in the sciences, Jennifer presides over the popular general science blog, Cocktail Party Physics, which doubles as an online prose laboratory and outlet for her writerly effluvia. She is currently hard at work drafting an outline for her third (as-yet-untitled) book.