Contributors

Having completed a master’s degree in conservation biology at Columbia University in 2009, Chia-Yi Hou enrolled in a joint PhD program between the National University of Singapore and Imperial College London in 2013. Working with L. Roman Carrasco in Singapore, and coadvised by John Mumford in London, Hou used data on disease emergence events in humans, incorporating socioeconomic factors and measures of wildlife biodiversity, and found that species richness correlated with greater chances of zoonotic leaps. At the same time, Hou began writing, starting with a travel blog. “I started to think about . . . writing about science as a career,” she says. She moved home to New York City after completing her PhD work last year and accepted a position as a science video writing intern at Business Insider. “It [was] cool to see people engage with the video and really respond to it,” she says. “That’s really ...