Karen Southwell

Employer: Nature
Qualifications: Astronomy BA and doctorate, Oxford; MSc, University of Sussex

Have you done any scientific research yourself?

Yes, I did an MSc in astronomy at the University of Sussex, before returning to Oxford to do my doctorate. My thesis was about a binary stellar system - two stars orbiting each other - and involved taking observations at optical telescopes in Australia and South Africa.

How did you get into editing?

I honestly didn't know jobs like this one existed when I was at university. I loved astronomy, but by the end of my doctorate I found I'd become very narrow and focused. I also realised that I enjoyed travelling and writing more than actual scientific analysis. I did some freelance popular science writing and began to think about a career in science media…

And how did you find such a specialised job?

I didn't consider a job like this one until a temporary contract at Nature came up. Although my title is ‘editor', it's still very much an academic job, which involves very little copy editing. It's my role to select papers for publication, then steer them through the review process until they're accepted or rejected. It involves liaising with people at the heart of the scientific community.

Do you still get to travel?

That's one of the best things - I'm still travelling! Most of the big conferences are in the States, but I've been to a couple in Germany and Italy this year. Most recently of all, I visited a lab in Israel. Now I'm about to work on a stint of four months' remote working in Hong Kong. I wanted to go there for personal reasons, and the beauty of my job is that - with e-mail and access to databases through the internet - I can go anywhere in the world!