Author: Sarah Scoles

Sarah Scoles became interested in astronomy at a young age, partly because she grew up 50 miles from Cape Canaveral, Florida, where sonic booms from space shuttle landings set off her home's security system. After spending her childhood immersed in books both scientific and fictional, she attended Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia, and majored in astrophysics. During the summers, she assisted with research at Arecibo Observatory, the Center for Astrophysics, and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, fully intending to go on to an astronomical graduate program. She took a creative-writing course during her junior year, however, and fell in love with both the artistic and problem-solving aspects of writing. She decided to pursue this new passion and attended Cornell University's MFA program in fiction writing. Though she continues to write fiction, she is also interested in communicating science and making it accessible and interesting. With that in mind, after finishing her degree at Cornell, she became the public education specialist at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia, developing and implementing inquiry-based programs for students and teachers. There, she also co-founded the blog Smaller Questions, where she writes about astronomy research for a general audience.It was in rural Green Bank that Sarah got a dog with too much energy and started trail running to ensure that they both got enough activity. Now, she and her dog live in the East Side of Milwaukee, where they are exploring new trails. In her other spare time, she enjoys reading and writing short stories, playing in the snow, and researching catastrophic weather phenomena.