Join Today's Twitter Chat on Women in Science—and Volcanoes

This Monday, March 31, at 1 p.m. EDT, join a live Twitter chat with Alexandra Witze ’92, a correspondent with Nature. Find out how the geology major became an award-winning science journalist. Witze recently published Island on Fire about the 1783 eruption of Iceland’s Laki volcano, which she calls “one of the worst natural disasters you’ve never heard about.” Missed the chat? Read the storify recap of the discussion.

The chat will begin with questions about how MIT prepared her for a career in science writing, the massive societal impact of the Laki eruption, and why she thinks Twitter is a go-to tool for any journalist.

Follow the chat at #mitalum and tweet your own questions.

About Alexandra Witze After graduating from MIT, Witze enrolled in a science journalism program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In a recent interview with MIT’s Spectrum, she notes that MIT “has been very helpful in giving me a solid technical grounding. I can read a research paper and understand what it is trying to say.”

In addition to Nature, she has written for Science News, Dallas Morning News, and EARTH magazine covering a wide range of topics including the science of lightning, earthquakes, and features on high profile scientists. British explorer Nick Crane praised her book Island on Fire as “a volcanic tour de force; terrific story-telling.” Most recently, she served as a journalism fellow in complexity science at the Santa Fe Institute.

This event is co-sponsored by MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences and the MIT Alumni Association.