PROFESSIONAL SKETCH |
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Profile |
I am an open, persistent and highly responsible individual with wide-ranging experience as part of the communications & PR, and administration support offices at universities
or research institutions. I combine my science and engineering background with my creative and organizational aptitude to support the scientific endeavour |
Skills |
- COMMUNICATIONS AND PR
- Science writing (web & print content) for a broad range of audiences
- Concept design and content production for online presence of research organizations and large scientific programs
- Coordination of public & media relations for academic and research institutions
- Create and implement social media campaigns to inform and engage audiences with science
- Organization and management of academic events (scientific conferences, seminars, workshops, exhibitions, science outreach events)
- Technical & proposal writing
- Copyediting of scientific and technical literature
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- RESEARCH ADMINISTRATION
- Providing assistance and executive support to investigators in pre- and post-grant administration
- Preparation and editing of funding proposals, project reports, etc
- Liaising with funding agencies and external project evaluators
- Experience with a wide variety of academic project management tools and platforms
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Career Goals |
I am interested in a position in the communications & media relations office at universities or other
research institutions. Opportunities in the area of research administration and academic copyediting/publishing
are equally attractive. |
RELEVANT WORK EXPERIENCE |
Caltech
GROWTH Project
USA |
COMMUNICATIONS & PROGRAM COORDINATOR
March 2016 - present
- I plan and execute the communications activities within the GROWTH
project (news & press releases, website, promotional printed/online materials, multimedia & social media, reports, and other publications)
- I coordinate all organizational aspects of the GROWTH project between the project's 15 international partners,
liaise with the project's evaluation partner, and co-write project reports with the project's PIs to our funding agency.
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COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR AND WEB CONTENT PRODUCER
August 2016 - May 2018
As part of the Caltech/IPAC Communications & Education team, I develop online content (news, feature stories, etc) for the Caltech’s science and data centre as well as participate
in a wide variety of communications activities that support NASA missions. I also work
with a team of website developers and graphic designers to create engaging and functional websites for large scientific organizations/projects.
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University College London
UNLOC Project
United Kingdom |
COMMUNICATIONS & GRANT ADMINISTRATION MANAGER
Oct 2015 - May 2016
- I developed and executed a communications strategy designed to promote the technological and societal impact of the UNLOC
project (press releases, website, promotional printed/online materials, reports, and other publications)
- I managed all grant administration activities including liaising with funding bodies, assuring
compliance with funding and university regulations, coordination and organization of committee meetings, preparation of
project reports and more
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University of Groningen
Target Project
Netherlands |
COMMUNICATIONS & RESEARCH SUPPORT OFFICER
Oct 2011 - Oct 2015
- I led the communications and publications activities of the Target
project (press releases, website, promotional printed/online materials, reports, and other publications)
- I coordinated the organization of the international annual Target conferences, seminars, workshops, educational outreach,public events and more
- I provided research support to the scientific project manager and project committees of the Target project in identifying and developing funding proposal as well as coordinating the
preparation of regular executive reports, presentations and meetings
- I coordinated the daily office administration for the project and provide executive assistance to the project director
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University of Groningen
Netherlands |
FREELANCE SCIENCE WRITER & COPYEDITOR
July 2011 - Dec 2011
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I was a science writer for the University of Groningen Worldwide Newsletter aimed at the international students and alumni of the university
- I also conducted copyediting of scientific papers, PhD theses and other scientific literature
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Current Science Journal
Indian Academy of Sciences
Bangalore, India |
SCIENCE WRITER & CORRESPONDENT
September 2010 - May 2011As a Riki Krishnan Science Writing fellow, I wrote numerous short news, feature news, in focus articles, technical review articles, book reviews
and more for the Current Science journal. The journal is the most popular interdisciplinary science journal published by the
Indian Academy of Sciences |
Raman Research Institute
Bangalore, India |
WRITER/EDITOR
October 2009 - July 2010I was the writer, editor and design coordinator of the
2009-2010 Annual Report of the institute. In parallel, I was the
local coordinator for the Global Jet Watch project led by the Oxford University |
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FREELANCE WRITER & CORRESPONDENT
September 2004 - May 2005 I regularly wrote articles (featured articles, event reports, interviews) for the
monthly magazine of the foundation. My work was published in my native tongue - Bulgarian |
OTHER WORK EXPERIENCE |
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Hanze University of
Applied Sciences
Netherlands |
LECTURER
October 2011 - February 2014
- As a lecturer at the Institute of Engineering, I was responsible for the physics
learning line in the Bachelor's program Advanced Sensor Applications.
Since the program was in its infancy, I had to create a curriculum framework and develop new lecture material for the freshman physics course.
- I introduced and taught Scientific Writing as a new module in the Research Skills learning line.
- I was project tutor for freshman and sophomore students and a thesis supervisor for graduating students
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Microwave
Remote Sensing Lab
UMASS, USA |
RESEARCH ASSISTANT
September 2007 - September 2009 I had the unique opportunity to conduct my Master's studies and research at the
Microwave Remote Sensing Lab (MIRSL) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. I worked on the design and
development of a radar system to study the turbulence in the troposphere
and provide high-resolution data to local climate models |
Microwave
Instruction Lab
UMASS, USA |
TEACHING ASSISTANT
September 2007 - September 2009 During my second year as a Master's student at the Microwave
Remote Sensing Lab (MIRSL) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, I became the teaching assistant for the undergraduate course
"Microwave Systems". I lead the laboratory sessions, maintained the lab instruments and graded lab reports |
MBE Lab
University of Illinois at Chicago
USA |
RESEARCH ASSISTANT
August 2006 - August 2007 Before moving to the UMASS, Amherst, I was a graduate student at
the University of Illinois, Chicago. I joined
the research group of Prof. Ghosh and worked for a year in the Molecular Beam Epitaxy Lab where we developed novel nanomaterials and nanostructures for microwave filters. |
University of California
Santa Barbara, USA |
PROJECT CONSULTANT
Exchange program, summer 2005 As part of a summer exchange program, I joined the Still Laboratory
at the University of California, Santa Barbara where I provided
advise to Prof. Still's group on designing a long-distance wireless communication link between the Santa Barbara Channel Islands and the UCSB campus |
EDUCATION |
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University of
Massachusetts
Amherst, USA |
MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering
September 2007 - September 2009 Thesis:
An UHF Frequency-Modulated Continuous Wave Wind Profiler - Development and Initial Results |
Technical University
Sofia, Bulgaria |
BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering
September 2000 - September 2004 I studied telecommunications technologies as part of the ECE department program.
My specialization was in wave propagation, antenna design, microwave engineering |
TECHNICAL SKILLS |
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Software Tools |
Joomla and wide variety of other CMS, MS Office, LATEX, GIMP, Wrike, Twiki, Redmine and other Windows- and Linux-based intranet platforms for project management, Adobe InDesign (intermediate) |
Programming |
MATLAB, LabVIEW, HTML, IDL, SQL (basic level) |
HONOURS & AWARDS |
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- Recipient of the R Krishnan Science Writing Fellowship, Current Science Journal, Indian Academy of Science,Bangalore, India, Sept 2010
- Annual University Fellowship Recipient, University of Illinois at Chicago, Aug 2006
- Annual Silver Medal Award, Technical University,Sofia, July 2004 (graduated second in class of 2004 with a silver medal)
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OTHER EXPERIENCE |
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Training |
Progect Management
Hanze University of Applied SciencesIntensive project management training for technical projects |
Conferences and
Workshops |
I was invited to be a keynote speaker at the conference where I presented the Target project as an example of collaborative science powered by
fast and reliable ICT infrastructure dedicated to research in the Netherlands |
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Indo- USSTF Science Communication Workshop, Indian Academy of Sciences
Bangalore, India (Dec 2010)
I took part in a workshop on science communication organized by the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (USSTF)
- a non-profit organization established under the agreement of the United States and Indian governments to stimulate and promote collaborations between the two countries in science, engineering,
technology and biomedical research |
LANGUAGES |
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Bulgarian |
Bulgarian is my mother tongue but in the last 12 years, it has been replaced by English as my language of professional and personal communication. |
English |
English is my adopted language and I have excellent reading, writing and speaking. |
Spanish |
Spanish was my second language in high school. I continued taking advanced Spanish classes after high school until I could
fluently read and write and hold a decent adult conversation about politics, education, or history. Admittedly, my Spanish is incredibly rusty right now as I haven't used it
for more than 15 years! |