Hey! I'm Elissa.

I didn’t always want to be a rat brain surgeon. As a child, I had imagined myself trekking the globe to learn about everything from elephants to volcanic eruptions. My curiosity was endless.

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But by my mid-20s, I was cornered in a windowless science lab poking small electrical devices into rat brains. Even though I studied advanced human-to-robot interactions, I was restless.

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The pandemic paused my research, and I unleashed my pent-up career fantasies by grilling anyone in a science-adjacent field about their job. After nearly 100 interviews, I began to suspect I enjoyed the interview process itself.

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So, after a decade in science, I leapt into a new field: journalism. I began as a cub reporter at my school’s student newspaper and immediately felt at home.

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Now, as I combine my past and present by becoming a science journalist, I aim to peek behind the straightforward facts to the people and situations that bring us scientific achievements.