Brynley Pearlstone

"At the end of my PhD, I decided that science communication was my favorite part of the PhD. I preferred doing that and being a voice for the work and people who do the work than actually doing the work itself. That's how I decided to go into science communication as a general direction. I knew I wanted to talk more about LGBTQ people in STEM and because podcasts have been an obsession of mine -- I listen to way too many podcasts to be healthy -- I knew podcasting was something I wanted to try a hand at. So my first project after my PhD and my main project at the moment is my podcast SciCurious where I highlight LGBTQ people in STEM and talk about their science. The idea for the podcast came to me last Autumn when I was writing up my thesis. I applied for a grant from the Institute of Physics, and I heard back within six weeks with some money for equipment like a microphone and audio interface for the computer and bit of travel funds for me to travel up and down the country, and enough funds to put on a live show at the Glasgow Science Festival!"

Brynley Pearlstone is a recent graduate from University of Glasgow whose PhD work focused on searches for continuous gravitational waves through LIGO and Virgo. He now works in science communication and hosts a podcast called SciCurious which highlights LGBTQ+ people in STEM and their science. In his free time, Brynley plays a Dwarvish fighter in a weekly Dungeons and Dragons campaign and he also sings in a queer choir. You can follow Brynley on Twitter at @BPearlstone.