We are looking for new blog team members for the new ‘EGU year’ (May 2021 – May 2022)! By being part of the blog team, you will have the opportunity to meet lots of people from the geodynamics community and beyond and boost your own profile. This year, we are looking for many different kinds of contributions, so have a look below and see if anything sparks your interest!
Interested? Send an e-mail to: i.vanzelst@leeds.ac.uk.
NOTE: Apart from the blog, we are also looking for people to join the social media team, organise events, and just generally be involved in the community! Plus, you don’t have to be a geodynamicist to become involved! We are looking to fill many different types of roles; not all of them have a focus on geodynamics. If you like (Earth) science, you are pretty much good to go!
WANTED: Regular blog editors
Regular blog editors are responsible for the weekly Wednesday blog posts on geodynamics, research, life in academia, etc. Depending on the amount of regular editors, you will be responsible for a blog post every 4-8 weeks. These posts can be either written by the editor themselves or commissioned: you invite a guest author and then edit their blog post. Hence, this is a perfect role if you want to meet and interact with people in geodynamics: you finally have an excuse to write to that one professor you have always wanted to talk to and now they will probably remember your name as well! There is a comprehensive schedule so that the whole team stays on track. I will help you settle in as an editor and I can help you meet your deadlines. Since everyone is busy, there is a lot of flexibility in the schedule and everyone on the team helps each other out in case of unexpected busy-ness!
WANTED: Sassy Scientist Columnists
The Sassy Scientist is an anonymous columnist who writes the weekly ‘Ask the Sassy Scientist’ column on Friday where they answer a question about geodynamics, research etc in as sassy a way as possible. Being a sassy scientist columnist is incredibly fun and creative: you can say anything you want and share your uncensored opinion with the world in a post dripping with sarcasm. If you want to be the next Sassy Scientist, you will be sworn to secrecy for life! So you cannot use this as a CV booster. Depending on the number of columnists, you will be responsible for a blog post every 2-4 weeks. In consultation with me and the Sassy Scientist OG, we will figure out a schedule that works for you, and make sure you can channel your inner sassy scientist. So, get your creative juices flowing and join our team of sassies!
WANTED: Topical editors – PhD Chronicles
Topical editors are editors that exclusively commission (or write) blog posts for a specific regular feature on the blog. At the moment, we have one such feature on our blog: the recently launched PhD chronicles, which are posted every first Monday of the month. In this series, we feature a PhD student who discusses one of the highs or lows of their PhD journey. Depending on the number of topical editors, you would be responsible for a blog post every 2-3 months. Considering the topic of the PhD chronicles, it would be nice if you are a PhD student / are young at heart / will start a PhD soon.
It is of course also possible to become a topical editor of a new feature. I can help you with setting up a new feature and make sure it hits the ground running. If you have any ideas, please reach out to me!
WANTED: Illustrators / Graphic designers
All the regular blog posts on Wednesdays have a featured image at the top of the post, which is used to promote the blog post on social media. Usually, editors or guest authors just mess around, but in the past year, we have seen how cool it is to have amazing illustrations alongside amazing blog posts. So, we want to up our game and get the creative and artsy among you involved! Hence, we are looking for illustrators and graphic designers who would like to support the regular blog editors by making illustrations and graphics for these blog posts if requested. I envision that it will be a nice, collaborative process. Since we never had an illustrator before, the amount of work is completely flexible and undetermined. Join and we will figure out together how much you want to draw!
WANTED: Guest authors
If you don’t want to commit to being bossed around by me for an entire year, but you do have that one story / paper / joke / discovery to share with the geodynamics community, we are always looking for (one-off) guest authors. If you have an idea (or not; I would be happy to brainstorm with you), you can send an e-mail to me or one of the regular blog editors. Once you are set up with an editor, you will get a deadline that suits your schedule and off you go: writing to your heart’s content.
So, did I convince you? Is one of these roles within the blog team perfect for you? Do you have any questions before committing to a year of joyous blogging?
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me by e-mailing to i.vanzelst@leeds.ac.uk. Hopefully I can soon welcome you in our lovely team!
