Featured Woman in STEM: Sarah McAnulty
Sarah McAnulty is an American squid biologist and science communicator. She specializes in cephalopods. She is the founder and executive director of Skype a Scientist, a non-profit organization that connects scientists and teachers for free from around the world for live video calls.
Education
McAnulty earned her BS in Marine Science at Boston University in 2011 and in 2019 received her PhD from the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Connecticut.
In an interview with Style Engineers Worldwide, McAnulty describes the first time she really felt like a scientist:
“I guess I first really felt like a scientist when I was working in Woods Hole at the Marine Biological Lab. I was doing experiments with cuttlefish and I knew I was working toward a publication in that lab and that’s probably the first time I really felt like I was working in science.”
Career
One of McAnulty’s most notable accomplishments is the founding of Skype a Scientist. Beginning in 2017, the free platform Skype a Scientist, gives classrooms the opportunity to speak with real scientists from all around the world. The goal of the program is for students to have positive experiences with scientists and form a personal connection with someone working in a scientific field.
Image Credit: Sarah McAnulty
In 2019, McAnulty went on a road trip in the southeastern U.S., called the "Squids Across America Tour," where she spoke about cephalopods and science communication. In the same interview with Style Engineers Worldwide, McAnulty speaks about her initial interest in Squids Across America Tour and her most memorable moments from the tour:
“It was sort of a combination of motivations. One, I knew that I was going to be running Skype a Scientist full time after I graduated, and part of our core mission is to get scientists thinking about how best to communicate their science. Second, I was writing my thesis and wished I could get out of the house and get moving. Third, I had not seen much of our country, and I wanted to change that. I figured a road trip across the country speaking to scientists on how to better communicate their science might be a pretty good way of approaching that! I tweeted asking people if they would be interested in having me come speak on science communication at their universities, and sure enough, people did!
There’s been so many awesome moments on this tour. I did a thrown together show in a park in LA with podcast host Alie Ward, got to meet a ton of scientists who value science communication, had scientists show me their research animals, saw national parks all over the Southern United States, it’s hard to pick one!”
Along with many other accomplishments, McAnulty has even published a squid coloring book!
Follow McAnulty on all of her social media pages below!
Twitter: @Sarahmackattack & @SkypeScientist
Patreon: Patreon.com/SkypeAScientist
Instagram: @SarahMackAttack & @SkypeAScientist
YouTube: youtube.com/TheSquidSquad & youtube.com/SkypeAScientist
TikTok: @SarahMackAttack
Watch the video below to find out why Sarah thinks what she studies is pretty awesome!
