Liz Dickinson, project manager and language editor, helps to advance InnoRenew CoE’s communications

• Where were you living in childhood and where do you live now?

I grew up in Ridgway, Pennsylvania (USA), which is beautiful small town inside the Allegheny National Forest. Today, I live in Kampel (Koper), Slovenia.

• What have you studied and what were the motives for your decision?

I studied psychology and journalism because I love reading, writing and understanding stories – fact and fiction.

• How would you describe your work to someone outside your field?

I’m a public relations expert. In my old life, I used these skills as an event producer, writer, editor and marketing specialist in higher education administration. Now I apply them to advance InnoRenew CoE’s communications.

• What does your typical working day look like?

Nothing is typical. It could be drafting a proposal for a new communications channel, for example, creating and helping to launch IPBE, the institute’s open access journal. It could be editing a researcher’s funding proposal or journal submission. It could also be reviewing and revising web copy or other promotional collateral – events, reports, videos, newsletters, you name it – to assure clarity and brand consistency.

• What makes you excited about your work?

People. And words, of course. When the two come together, magic happens. I find this most often within the Communications Group working on marketing materials. But I also really enjoy this collaboration when I help researchers focus and tighten their proposals.

• And what is the biggest challenge at your work?

Communications, ironically. Improved internal communications across the institute will be a good project for 2022 🙂

• Which scientist or scientific achievement are you fascinated by and why?

Katherine Johnson, because she was a brilliant trailblazer for women – black women – in STEM. I had the privilege to meet her and write about her when she received an honorary doctorate from West Virginia University. From White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, she joined a group of similarly smart but overlooked women who, we now know, were critical to NASA’s success during the “space race”.

• Tell us about the work of art (books, music, movies, theatre, dance, visual arts) that has a special place in your life.

It is impossible to pick just one – I love books, music and art. Even those that disappoint me are worthwhile since someone took the time to put their creativity and love into the world.

• What have you read, listened to, or watched lately?

It’s summertime, beach read season. I just finished “Last Summer at the Golden Hotel,” by Elyssa Friedland. If you like “Dirty Dancing” (who doesn’t?), it’s a fun read for a modern take on that theme.

• Which place on the Slovene coast do you like the most?

Strunjan.

• What makes you enthusiastic?

Traveling and seeing more of this big, beautiful world we live on.

• Characterize your life’s guidance or an important realization (or epiphany) you have experienced.

Let. It. Go. (easier said than done)

• What does the charm of wood mean to you?

I grew up in the forest, my father was a logger, my husband is a wood scientist – so for me, charm of wood is love.