Sheena Lee is an amalgamation of sorts. One part scientist. One part journalist. Thirty-six percent world traveler. Seven-eighths vegetarian.

For work, she’s lived in a tent in the middle-of-nowhere, Madagascar, chased lemurs and ate a lot of rice and beans. A lot.

And blogged about it.

At her current job, she tells stories about the research supported by the National Human Genome Research Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, explaining how it’s critical to forward progress, the motivation behind the work and why it’s inherently cool.

For fun, she types away on her ancient MacBook Pro creating stories that she hopes science nerds, and non-science nerds alike, might enjoy. Intestinal worms, weird physiology and rarely diagnosed psychological conditions are her favorite topics. In the summer of 2015, she questioned famous scientists about cow poop for The Philadelphia Inquirer as a AAAS Mass Media Fellow. She also has words at Scientific American, the Duke Research Blog and the Duke Medicine Blog.

She never knows when to use an Oxford comma, but she’ll learn, she’ll impress her editors (,) and everyone will live happily ever after.

Sheena Lee completed her undergraduate degree in biology and psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, where she spent more time delivering Applebee’s mozzarella sticks to hungry mid-westerners than studying. In Fall 2010, she plopped her inquisitive self at Duke University to chase after lemurs for her doctorate.

In her ever-elusive spare time she rock climbs, volleys, spends all her money on flights to foreign countries and pretends to yoga.

This is what she looks like when she’s showered.

This is what she looks like when she’s un-showered and living in a tent (she’s the one in the Brewer’s cap).