“So why science journalism?” I ask Aviva as we walk through Harvard’s campus. Aviva’s mother was a veterinarian and, as a child, Aviva remembers seeing kidney stones and organs floating in her jar, while her grandfather was an organic chemist who captivated Aviva with experiments. Then she moves to journalism – she was the editor-in-chief of her high school newspaper and then her college newspaper at Union College. “It was my life for two years,” she says as she looks away, no doubt remembering the nights before the issue went to press.

So, I think, that’s what science writer is. But that clearly wasn’t the whole story. Developing a love for science and a love for media journalism didn’t have to necessarily lead Aviva to writing about science. Aviva is a prolific writer – her short pieces cover everything from wireless car charging to the origins of the great white shark. The subject of her writing is often technical and can be found in the all important peer-reviewed scientific journals, but her writing is not the glazed-eye, yawn inducing, regression-filled analysis of those mediums. As I researched Aviva and realized she wrote about science, I procured a rather large cup of coffee in order to hunker down and read her articles. I didn’t touch my coffee before I was finished reading through the first one, and then the second, and then…How did she do that?

So I had to ask her again, “Why science writing?” “I didn’t come to this as a dream of mine. It was a fortuitous marriage of some things that I love.” As a neuroscience major, Aviva was required to take a computer science class, which she put off as long as she could. After her first day of class, “I loved it, “ she said with her hands out reiterating her own shock.  She said she found herself in a 300-level class creating an interactive fiction engine for her college thesis – something she wouldn’t have known how to do just a year before. Two themes emerge as Aviva continues talking about the “fortuitous marriage:” First, she’s drawn to tangible objects, objects that she’s brought to life through her creative capacities; second, that the reigning image of a scientist is incorrect, and she wants to change that misperception.  The speech speeds up when she talks about holding her college newspaper in her hand. It’s easy to see that she’s picturing a copy of the Concordiensis, her school’s newspaper as she describes the manifestation of her imagination and work. To her second point, she talks about communicating technology and science to women, making it accessible to a group of people who think it’s not available to them. Her writing embodies this mission – she jumps from gray matter to the anatomy of a protein seamlessly and takes this layman along with her.

Aviva’s one year MIT Graduate Program in Science Writing comes to a close in three months. So, what’s next? She tells me over the winter holiday she lived with the widow of the subject of her graduate thesis, Paul Bach-y-rita, a pioneer in the field of neuroplasticity. Paul’s wife invited Aviva to live in their home for two weeks, giving her access to his unpublished manuscripts, full access to the contents of his computer, and even the songs he wrote about his wife. “It would be disappointing  to be read just by my advisor and mother,” Aviva says referring to her thesis. She hopes to do more justice to Paul’s life and the unprecedented access she’s received to his ground-breaking research. I look at her incredulously, and ask, “Okay, what else?” knowing there is more Aviva wants to do. That’s hard, she says, “I don’t know my brand.” “What do you mean?” I ask. She gives me an example: Ed Young looks for accuracy and holes in new stories, other writers are known for writing “obscenely fast” or for covering infectious disease.

“Okay, so let’s brainstorm,” I say.

This is the list we come up with:

Humanizing Science

Woman

Non-scientists

Lay audience

Simplifying

Accessible

De-mystify

Journalism

Stereotype.

She likes “Science,” but hates the word “Humanizing.” She changes her mind – Science is a scary word for too many people. So we finally settle on one.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present Aviva’s brand – at least for now.