My name is Kat Friedrich; I’m a writer and web editor in the Boston area.
I grew up on the South Side of Chicago, where I became interested in science and wrote my first news articles. The environment where I lived was affected by steel mills and other pollution. This motivated me to care about urban sustainability and brownfield reclamation.
Before I knew I could become a science writer, I spent years building machines and learning how to design them. I began studying mechanical engineering in college because of my interest in energy conservation. Since then, I’ve worked in machine shops, built hybrid race cars, designed cooling systems for power electronics, and assembled plumbing and industrial equipment to manufacture fiberboard. Working as an engineer also taught me how to manage projects.
For a long time, my enthusiasm for writing stayed in the background like coffee bubbling slowly. When I was 26, it jumped to the front burner and began boiling rapidly. I applied to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and completed my degree in 2006. Half of my coursework was in journalism and half of it was in environmental studies; I also completed a certificate in web design. I wrote my thesis on media framing – a topic which I still discuss in this blog today.
Since entering graduate school, I’ve focused on science communication. I worked with a team to produce the CIRTL Diversity Resources, a set of training materials for science, technology, engineering and math faculty. After that grant ended, I began working for energy, environmental and health nonprofits on the East Coast. In my free time, I organize NetSquared Boston, a local chapter of an international “tech for good” organization.
I write for various websites such as Climate Access and Scientific American. The topics I cover relate to renewable energy, energy efficiency, urban sustainability, green jobs, global warming, environmental media, and diversity in the environmental movement. I am also interested in writing about green design, technology and construction.
To see how I make science accessible to non-specialists, you can like my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter.
Note: I subscribe to the TAO of Journalism principles – Transparency, Accountability and Openness – and have disclosed my funding sources on this site. I am committed to advancing community health and environmental sustainability and am not a member of any political party or lobbying organization. My clients neither fund this website nor determine its content.
