Bio
Jamie Zvirzdin (Pronunciation: zuh-VUR-zdin) researches ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays for the Telescope Array Project at the University of Utah. She is currently building neural networks and applying machine learning techniques to analyze certain features of cosmic-ray data, including composition and arrival direction.
She also works a few night shifts each month to operate fluorescence detectors located in the West Desert of Utah. Secondarily, she is also building a Convolutional Neural Network to identify weather patterns recorded by sky cameras during telescope operation.
She is the author of Subatomic Writing: Six Fundamental Lessons to Make Language Matter from Johns Hopkins University Press (2023), which earned praise from NPR, NASA, MIT, Argonne National Laboratory, Grammar Girl, Brevity Magazine, Dava Sobel, Mary Roach, and others. It playfully compares particles of language to particles of matter to help the reader deepen their understanding of both Standard English and the Standard Model of particle physics.
Zvirzdin's newspaper column, Citizen Science, is published monthly in The Freeman's Journal of Cooperstown, New York, and Hometown Oneonta, which you can find online at AllOtsego.com. Her science essays have been published in The Atlantic, Kenyon Review, Orion Magazine, Brevity Magazine, Creative Nonfiction Magazine, Issues in Science & Technology, and elsewhere.
Most of her essays can be read online for free (see Publications).
She will soon finish her Master of Science degree in Applied Physics with the Whiting School of Engineering at JHU. Previously, Zvirzdin taught science writing for six years in the MA Science Writing Program at Johns Hopkins University, creating two new courses—Subatomic Writing and Funny Side of Science—and improving the other courses she taught, including the Science Personal Essay & Memoir Workshop, the Science–Medical Writing Workshop, Principles of Editing, and Prizewinners: The Best Writing about Science, Technology, Environment, and Health. She served as thesis advisor for students, presented at JHU Faculty Professional Development Summits, and assisted with the JHU AAP booth at science and writing conventions. She earned the 2019 Excellence in Teaching Award and the 2023 Distinguished Professional Achievement Award from Johns Hopkins.
From 2016 to 2018, Zvirzdin taught astronomy at the Pierre and Marie Curie School and the American University of Managua in Nicaragua. Before this, she was a science editor for a decade, working as a proofreader of graduate textbooks on engineering, computer programming, optics, mathematics, statistics, and astrophysics for A K Peters/CRC Press (now Routledge), a member of the Taylor & Francis Group.
In 2015, she earned a Master of Fine Arts in Writing & Literature from Bennington College, Vermont. She was also the editor of and a contributor to Fresh Courage Take: New Directions by Mormon Women (Signature Books, 2015), a book of essays by Mormon and Post-Mormon women discussing difficult cultural and religious issues.
From 2012 to 2014, with grants from the Ministry of Education and many others in the Marshall Islands and abroad, she founded the Unbound Bookmaker Project for students in the Marshall Islands. She and her team completed 13 Marshallese-English children's books in conjunction with WorldTeach, plus two other books for Waan Aelõñ in Majel (WAM) and the 4-H Club (see p. 7) on Kwajalein Atoll.
Zvirzdin has lived in Utah, Toronto, Italy, Belgium, New York, DC, the Marshall Islands, Montreal, and Nicaragua as part of a Foreign Service family. She currently lives in Frankfurt, Germany, with her husband, son, cat, and dog.
She also works a few night shifts each month to operate fluorescence detectors located in the West Desert of Utah. Secondarily, she is also building a Convolutional Neural Network to identify weather patterns recorded by sky cameras during telescope operation.
She is the author of Subatomic Writing: Six Fundamental Lessons to Make Language Matter from Johns Hopkins University Press (2023), which earned praise from NPR, NASA, MIT, Argonne National Laboratory, Grammar Girl, Brevity Magazine, Dava Sobel, Mary Roach, and others. It playfully compares particles of language to particles of matter to help the reader deepen their understanding of both Standard English and the Standard Model of particle physics.
Zvirzdin's newspaper column, Citizen Science, is published monthly in The Freeman's Journal of Cooperstown, New York, and Hometown Oneonta, which you can find online at AllOtsego.com. Her science essays have been published in The Atlantic, Kenyon Review, Orion Magazine, Brevity Magazine, Creative Nonfiction Magazine, Issues in Science & Technology, and elsewhere.
Most of her essays can be read online for free (see Publications).
She will soon finish her Master of Science degree in Applied Physics with the Whiting School of Engineering at JHU. Previously, Zvirzdin taught science writing for six years in the MA Science Writing Program at Johns Hopkins University, creating two new courses—Subatomic Writing and Funny Side of Science—and improving the other courses she taught, including the Science Personal Essay & Memoir Workshop, the Science–Medical Writing Workshop, Principles of Editing, and Prizewinners: The Best Writing about Science, Technology, Environment, and Health. She served as thesis advisor for students, presented at JHU Faculty Professional Development Summits, and assisted with the JHU AAP booth at science and writing conventions. She earned the 2019 Excellence in Teaching Award and the 2023 Distinguished Professional Achievement Award from Johns Hopkins.
From 2016 to 2018, Zvirzdin taught astronomy at the Pierre and Marie Curie School and the American University of Managua in Nicaragua. Before this, she was a science editor for a decade, working as a proofreader of graduate textbooks on engineering, computer programming, optics, mathematics, statistics, and astrophysics for A K Peters/CRC Press (now Routledge), a member of the Taylor & Francis Group.
In 2015, she earned a Master of Fine Arts in Writing & Literature from Bennington College, Vermont. She was also the editor of and a contributor to Fresh Courage Take: New Directions by Mormon Women (Signature Books, 2015), a book of essays by Mormon and Post-Mormon women discussing difficult cultural and religious issues.
From 2012 to 2014, with grants from the Ministry of Education and many others in the Marshall Islands and abroad, she founded the Unbound Bookmaker Project for students in the Marshall Islands. She and her team completed 13 Marshallese-English children's books in conjunction with WorldTeach, plus two other books for Waan Aelõñ in Majel (WAM) and the 4-H Club (see p. 7) on Kwajalein Atoll.
Zvirzdin has lived in Utah, Toronto, Italy, Belgium, New York, DC, the Marshall Islands, Montreal, and Nicaragua as part of a Foreign Service family. She currently lives in Frankfurt, Germany, with her husband, son, cat, and dog.
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News
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1/27/25 Coming soon to a University of Delaware near you, courtesy of the Bartol Research Institute and an NSF grant:
"Psst . . . Your AI Is Showing: How to Put Your Own Voice in Scientific Papers." Come strengthen your own neural-net capacities by writing better than AI! This is an in-person event only, at the beginning of the week-long Workshop on Machine Learning for Analysis of High-Energy Particles. See JZ Mini-Workshop.pdf here for sign-up link: https://events.icecube.wisc.edu/event/243/ (PDF is at the bottom of the website. It has a separate registration than the ML workshop so university students can participate.) |
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11/1/24 Science personal essay in Aeon Magazine on bridging physics and storytelling. It recounts my unconventional journey from literature to particle physics, and it explores the connections between the Two Cultures of science and literary arts.
"The City of Wisdom" https://aeon.co/essays/to-understand-physics-we-need-to-tell-and-hear-stories |
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10/10/24 Had a wonderful experience talking with Dr. Christina Gessler about physics, writing, and science writing and Subatomic Writing in general on The Academic Life podcast, Episode 235:
Apple Podcasts podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/subatomic-writing-six-fundamental-lessons-to-make-language/id1539341620?i=1000672478413 Or access the podcast via the New Books Network page on Subatomic Writing: https://newbooksnetwork.com/subatomic-writing |
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1/31/24 First Citizen Science column of 2024 is live! Support local journalism and get energy this year! Last year's column focused on our human biases. This year, we address the pseudoscience surrounding energy by teaching 12 different flavors of real energy.
Energy Demystified: A Year of Studying Energy https://www.allotsego.com/citizen-science-energy-demystified-a-year-of-studying-energy/ |
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1/21/24 to 1/28/24 Thanks to the 50+ attendees of the DCSWA Professional Development Boot Camp 2024! I'm so pleased with all you accomplished.
If you missed the chance to attend our workshops on publishing, write a new piece (any genre), binge-skim Subatomic Writing: Six Fundamental Ways to Make Language Matter from JHU Press, and network with other science writers in your field of interest, contact me and I'll make sure to email you the link to the next event. |
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8/2023 Book Authority (used by CNN, Forbes, etc.) named Subatomic Writing one of the 20 Best Writing Books of 2023 and, separately, one of the 7 Best Writing eBooks of 2023. |
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11/30/23 New monthly article in the Citizen Science column:
Desert Vigil: Patience and the Pulse of Cosmic-Ray Secrets More about Amaterasu and the Telescope Array discovery at CNN: Mysterious cosmic ray observed in Utah came from beyond our galaxy, scientists say |
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6/14/23 Successfully tested for a black belt in Jissen Kobudo Jinenkan in Maryland right before we left for Frankfurt. I miss my dojo already.
6/3/2023 Awarded the 2023 Distinguished Professional Achievement Award from Johns Hopkins University. It has been a good six years teaching science writing, and I will miss my graduate students dearly. I'm still going to teach writing privately, but my focus is on particle physics now. Also, JHU Advanced Academic Programs (AAP) needs to pay faculty better, e.g., adjust wages for inflation, provide benefits, and financially award teachers who deserve such awards. They should do more than the bare minimum, in other words. I support adjunct faculty unions! Stop taking advantage of the goodwill of your teachers.
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7086700106502033408/
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7086700106502033408/
5/21/23 Author Talk at Olney Library
Learn how to write better than ChatGPT and ask questions about editing and publishing!
https://mcpl.libnet.info/event/8378401
Learn how to write better than ChatGPT and ask questions about editing and publishing!
https://mcpl.libnet.info/event/8378401
4/27/23 New newspaper article in the Citizen Science column:
AI Renaissance: A Chance to Reduce Cheating,
Revitalize the School Experience
AI Renaissance: A Chance to Reduce Cheating,
Revitalize the School Experience
2/21/23 Happy Book Birthday to Subatomic Writing from JHU Press!
Science, science-writing, and writing professors and teachers:
Request a desk copy here.
Journalists and book reviewers: Request a review copy here.
Science, science-writing, and writing professors and teachers:
Request a desk copy here.
Journalists and book reviewers: Request a review copy here.
3/2/23 New newspaper article in the Citizen Science column:
False Alarms in Science and the Media: Examining Cause and Effect
False Alarms in Science and the Media: Examining Cause and Effect
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February and March 2023 PRESENTATIONS! See the list of upcoming/past Subatomic Writing presentations here: https://www.subatomicwriting.com/about.html
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2/16/23 Science Sonnet + Creation Story now up at Microlit Almanac! I'm pleased this poem + prose flash-nonfiction piece found a great home.
www.birchbarkediting.com/microlit-almanac/dust-to-dust-zvirzdin |
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1/25/23 First article of new newspaper science column published in The Freeman's Journal (newspaper), Hometown Oneonta (newspaper), and AllOtsego.com (online version), central New York. First article: "Introducing Citizen Science: Finding Intellectual Security":
www.allotsego.com/citizen-science-introduction-to-citizen-science-finding-intellectual-security/ (p. 8 of 1/26/23 newspapers) |
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10/24/22 Announcing Subatomic Writing: Six Fundamental Lessons to Make Language Matter, published by Johns Hopkins University Press. Available for preorder now. See www.subatomicwriting.com for the new teaser trailer and blurbs!
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5/31/22 Modern Physics begins!
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May 2022 Another delightful round of Subatomic Writing concludes.
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March 2022 Turned in manuscript draft of Subatomic Writing to Johns Hopkins University Press.
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1/31/22 to 2/3/22 Attended a fantastic workshop at Bartol's Research Institute on machine learning for cosmic-ray air showers.
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9/1/2021 September workshops now available! Become better at writing by focusing on one evocative, grammatically correct sentence at a time.
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7/22/2021 Accepted to the Whiting School of Engineering's Applied Physics grad program at JHU. Starts Summer 2022.
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5/24/2021 Started teaching the new Funny Side of Science course! Here's the Welcome Video:
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3/30/21 Subatomic Writing textbook under contract with Johns Hopkins University Press! Target release is January 2023.
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1/1/21 Published "The Complicated Truth of Climate Change
in the Marshall Islands" in The New Republic. |
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6/15/20 Received approval from JHU to build a new course for the program called The Funny Side of Science. Development underway, new course will be ready for students Summer 2021.
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9/26/19 Published the Enumeration in Orion Magazine's Autumn 2019 issue called "6 Ways to Calculate a Universe in Flux."
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6/5/19 Met some of the brilliant people who work on NPR's Science Desk as part of JHU's Science Policy, Funding, and Politics summer residency.
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6/3/19 Visited Paul Hertz, director of NASA Astrophysics, as part of JHU's Science Policy, Funding, and Politics summer residency.
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5/22/19 Got a nice surprise during the 2019 Graduate Thesis Reading.
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4/17/19 Enumeration submission accepted by Orion Magazine. "6 Ways to Calculate a Universe in Flux" will be published in September.
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4/2/19 Met with some of my favorite people in Utah and worked on programs for ultrahigh-energy cosmic ray telescopes.
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2/17/19 Tended the JHU booth and had a great time at American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting.
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2/15/19 Science article "I Fell Under the Spell of NASA's Most Notorious Thief" is published in The Atlantic.
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1/19 I start teaching a new course I created for the Science Writing grad program at JHU. It's called Subatomic Writing, an elective that "examines writing on the particle level: sound, syntax, punctuation, rhythm, and pacing."
I made a melodramatic movie trailer to introduce myself and the course to my students. |
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11/18 I drive myself and my son from Utah to Maryland, get my husband and stuff back from Nicaragua, and buy our first house, all in time for Thanksgiving. I am grateful for many things this year. I'll still be working remotely for Cosmic Ray Research at the U of U.
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9/4/18 Flash-nonfiction piece "Walking by Dogs on a Marshallese Morning" is published on Brevity Magazine's podcast, Episode #10: One-Minute Memoirs. Starts at minute 33.
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7/18 I start working again for the Cosmic Ray Research Group at the University of Utah! Besides running the fluorescence detectors and fixing the scintillation detectors out near Delta, Utah, I'm working on a project to align new telescopes to the stars of the sky very precisely.
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6/10/18 to 6/15/18 Attended the Orion Environmental Writer's Workshop in Rhinebeck, New York.
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4/26/18 My son and I were evacuated from Nicaragua to a safe haven in Utah. I finished teaching my astronomy students online, although it was not easy for them. (Image of Nicaraguan police shooting at their own people taken on May 29, 2018.) One student, Marco Novoa, described in an interview how he was tortured by the Ortega administration.
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4/12/26 I gave former Sandinista commander Dora María Téllez a copy of my essay "On the Revolution of Revolutions: Nicaraguan Women After War," which turned out to be more prophetic than I liked. The essay is now available online on the CONSEQUENCE Magazine website.
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3/16/18 Publication of essay "Makeup of a Monster" is now available in Creative Nonfiction #66: "Dangerous Creations." It explores how beauty cosmetics parallel Boris Karloff's cosmetics in the movie Frankenstein—and what I see happening in my beautiful home state of Utah, one of the top consumers of cosmetic surgery in the nation. www.creativenonfiction.org/issue/66
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3/8/18 At AWP Conference in Tampa, Florida, on duty at the JHU Booth. More information about the MA in Science Writing Program can be found here. Great to see Bennington College friends and other familiar faces too.
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3/3/18 Invited to attend moon ceremony of indigenous people of Nicaragua in Jinotega. Camping with them as well as Sandinista freedom fighters under the shadow of the sacred mountain Yuca Puca was quite the experience.
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2/16/18 Accompanied students to Humberto Solorzano's organic farm Tonantzin in La Trinidad, Nicaragua, where we learned about sustainable farming in the dry tropical zone. Humberto also built me an astronomy tower! Observation nights in the works for astronomy students.
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2/13/18 "On the Revolution of Revolutions: Nicaraguan Women After War" published for CONSEQUENCE Magazine's 10th anniversary issue. http://www.consequencemagazine.org/volumes/volume-10-anniversary-issue-spring-2018/
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2/12/18 First day teaching astronomy at Universidad Americana de Managua, Nicaragua.
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2/9/18 Flash nonfiction "Walking by Dogs on a Marshallese Morning" accepted for Brevity's One-Minute Memoir issue. Unknown publication date.
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2/06/18 Checked in with Pierre and Marie Curie School. The Science Literature Library we started is still going strong!
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12/28/17 "Makeup of a Monster" accepted for publication at Creative Nonfiction Magazine. Will be published March 2018.
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10/13/17 Magazine event launch at the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the publication of a collaborative Science & Religion issue. "Shuddering Before the Beautiful" essay won the $5,000 runner-up prize and can be found in both Creative Nonfiction Magazine and Issues in Science & Technology.
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Photo by Matthew G. Bisanz.
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9/16/17 "On the Revolution of Revolutions: Nicaraguan Women After War" accepted for publication for a special 10-year anniversary issue at CONSEQUENCE Magazine. Forthcoming January 2018.
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8/28/17 Started teaching the Prizewinners course at Johns Hopkins University. Find more information on the Science Writing Master's Program at JHU here. Will be teaching the Science-Medical Writing Workshop Spring 2018 semester.
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7/3/17 Creative Nonfiction Magazine and Issues in Science & Technology will publish essay "'Shuddering Before the Beautiful': Trains of Thought Across the Mormon Cosmos" this October as part of a special issue on science & religion.
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5/30/17 Accepted position to teach science writing to MA students at Johns Hopkins University.
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5/25/17 Spoke with Sandra Cisneros during her visit to Nicaragua. Her message to Nicaraguan girls: 1) make your own money, 2) control your own fertility, 3) learn to enjoy being alone.
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5/8/17 Interviewed Comandante Dora María Téllez. Essay forthcoming in CONSEQUENCE Magazine.
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5/7/17 Took Pierre and Marie Curie students to see the movie Hidden Figures--free tickets and special viewing courtesy of the U.S. Embassy.
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4/30/17 Judged NASA's SpaceApps Challenge at Universidad Americana de Managua.
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3/9/17 Assembly at Pierre and Marie Curie School with Dr. Jaime Incer Barquero to award my students for analyzing images from the Pan-STARRS observatory in Hawaii and preliminarily discovering 10 new asteroids through the International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC).
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1/26/16 Fully armed and operational astronomical station at Pierre and Marie Curie School, Managua, Nicaragua.
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10/24/16 "Landscape with Broken Fire Hydrant: An Interview with Jamie Zvirzdin" published by MFA Day Job.
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9/6/16 "Observations of a Science Editor: If Romantic Scientists Pilfered Fiction's Toolbox, So Can You" published by The Kenyon Review as part of a special discussion on "The Poetics of Science." Responses to the essay from scientists, writers, and editors will be posted throughout September and October.
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9/1/16 Fresh Courage Take nominated for Best Anthology by the John Whitmer Historical Association.
3/5/16 Fresh Courage Take finalist for the 2015 Smith-Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters, Creative Non-fiction. |
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