Work Snapshots

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While a Communications & Program Coordinator at Caltech...

March 2016 - present

I am currently the communications & program coordinator for the GROWTH project - an international collaboration in astronomy led by Caltech. I coordinate various research and educational programs within the project, liaise with various administrative offices at Caltech and other partner institutions, funding agencies and external evaluator contractors. Alongside my responsibilities as a program coordinator, I designed and maintain the project's website, write regular news and press releases, liaise with the Office of Stategic Communications at Caltech, produce online and printed material for communication to the general public, and coordinate various outreach events.

 

While a communications manager at University College London...

Oct 2015 - May 2016

I was the communications and grant administration manager for one of UK's largest research projects in optical communications. When I stepped into the role, the UNLOC programme (note the British spelling:P) was well into the third year of its 5 year lifespan, but was lacking the exposure and attention it deserved. Within several months, I re-designed the website of the project, produced a newsletter, and launched a long-term compaign to raise the profile of the program in the broad technical and mainstream media. I left this position because of personal reasons. It was one of the hardest choices I had to make...

 

News, Press Releases & Media

Produced and/or edited by Iva Kostadinova in collaboration with partners from UCL main press office or external media outlets

While a communications officer at the University of Groningen...

November 2011 - October 2015

I spent 4 wonderful years as the communications/administration officer of the Target project at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Target is a public-private partnership between 10 academic and industry partners who have a common goal of advancing our computing and storage technologies to enable today's data-driven science, business and social development. Browse through some of the promotional publications here to get a better taste for what I do. In addition to these, I provide administrative support for the consortium, assist in development and preparation of funding proposals, do copyediting of scientific articles published by members of the project and more.

 

Target Booklet

Text by Iva Kostadinova
Design by Iva Kostadinova

Target Conferences

Planning, organization and web content for the two international Target conferences in 2013 and 2014

Target Website

Web content by Iva Kostadinova
Design by University of Groningen

While a freelance science writer...

Summer 2011

I said goodbye to Current Science when I moved to Groningen, the Netherlands in May 2011. I had a million questions from how to open a bank account to which one of the endless number of milk products in the store most resembles plain yogurt. Walking out of the bank with a 1 kg yoghurt container in my hand, I was ready to explore "current science" in the Dutch polder. Living in a city with about 50 000 students and two large universities, I was ensured a wealth of exciting stories. With a growing number of international students and alumni, the University of Groningen had recently launched a newsletter in English called the "Worldwide Newsletter". I joined the newsletter team as a freelance science writer. Though I contributed only several short articles to the winter issue of the newsletter, this experience brought me in contact with wonderful people, taught me a lot about Dutch culture and ultimately opened the door to my current job as a communications officer of the Target project.

 

While a science writer in India...

2010 - 2011

Moving from rural Massachusetts to bustling Bangalore in India with a population of about 9 million people was labeled "a major change in life" by most people around me. It also brought a major shift in my career. After working on the annual report of the Raman Research Institute (see section below), I felt I wanted to continue to design stuff out of words, rather than equations. I applied for a prestigious science writing fellowship offered by the Current Science journal published by the Indian Academy of Sciences. Since its inception in 1932, the journal slowly came to be known as the Indian Nature magazine among the scientific community and science aficionados in the country. Working for Current Science was challenging, intense, instructive, motivational, different, exciting and beautiful. My writing was critiqued by wise editors, my knowledge expanded the way the Universe did just a few moments after the Big Bang, my beliefs - scientific and otherwise - were challenged, shaken and sometimes shattered, and I metamorphized professionally and personally in ways that define my present self.

 

While at the Raman Research Institute...

2009-2010

While living in India, I joined the Raman Research Institute in Bangalore where I had the freedom to propose and work on any project that could improve the PR image of the institute and expand its public and educational outreach. After a brief conversation with the director of the institute, we decided I should start with the annual report of the organization, which at that time needed major rethinking of structure and content. My goal was two-fold: (1) to deliver a report which is professionally designed, comprehensive and reflecting the spirit of the organization, and (2) turn the usually boring report into a story that not only the public wanted to read, but RRI members wanted to be part of. A story that builds bridges between the physically tiny, but psychologically sometimes huge distance between the various departments in the institute. A story that brings a sense of belonging and stirs curiousity about activities within the same organization that happen beyond the door of one's lab or office.