How often do you publish?

Roughly, kinda sorta, every spring.

The dream was that there would be two issues a year: S/F and W/S. That hasn't happened, because I work alone and get distracted/busy.

 

 

You work alone?

The Editor is the only full-time staff member. While I do solicit content from others, mainly friends and colleagues, so far I have not found anyone who has experience putting together a publication in InDesign like we require. From a logistical standpoint: I founded the magazine, own the Adobe Creative Cloud license and have a (very) basic understanding of design. Also, while people are excited about Composite and support its mission, I'm currently the only one who cares enough about it to make sure it happens every year. Eventually. Ish. I do spend time in lab, you know.

 

 

Wow, that's a lot of work! I'm Not in STEM at all, can I help?

I assume you are wildly talented and qualified. If you'd like to teach me a thing or two in InDesign, or about management and advertising and branding, I'd appreciate it. However, because of Composite's goals to showcase the talents and diversity of scientists and STEM professionals without a focus on reporting their science, and because of its format of contributor-submitted content (as opposed to reported content), we are currently not looking for journalists or non-STEM contributors.

If you want to be considered for a role as an interviewer, try sending me the questions you'd like to ask a scientist. Note that Composite is not a science communication magazine. We're not interested in commenting on popular science or spending much time communicating our own science: it happens all the time thanks to our great science communicators at Wired, NPR, NYT, etc. There are hundreds of YouTube channels that do just that. You could even shoot off an email to a professor if you wanted; academics love talking about their science!

But Composite is a lifestyle mag for nerding out about the people who do science.

Thanks for your interest, though. Money would help.

 


 

Alright, so Where do you find your contributors?

I knew every single person on the UCSB campus. Every. Single. One. I found the creative ones and I bothered them until they agreed to let me record them or photograph them or post their art! Sometimes they agreed to write things for me, too.

I'm kidding, a little. I'm not kidding that I seem to knew just about everyone on campus, but I'm lucky to have been employed to build that network, and I'm lucky my bosses were excited about Art and Science and increasing representation in STEM. I've met some students from other campuses when they visited UCSB, while we were at conferences together, or in high school when I dated some of them. They go on to bigger and better things (like PhD programs) and I just keep bothering them until they have something cool to talk about.