Jennifer Ouellette

File:Jennifer Ouellette Freethought 2018 speaking.jpg

Ouellette's website describes her as a "recovering English major who stumbled into science writing quite by accident as a struggling freelance writer in New York City."{{cite web |title=Ouellette, Jennifer |department=Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/ouellette-jennifer-0 |website=Encyclopedia.com |date=12 Sep 2024 |access-date=26 Sep 2024}} According to her husband, physicist Sean M. Carroll, Ouellette was hired by the American Physical Society "after they found out that it was easier to teach physics to people who knew how to write than to teach writing to people who knew physics."{{cite web |title=MTS: Meet Sean Carroll |website=Meet The Skeptics! |date=4 December 2012 |url=http://meettheskeptics.libsyn.com/mts-meet-sean-carroll |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141229221044/http://meettheskeptics.libsyn.com/mts-meet-sean-carroll |archive-date=29 December 2014 |url-status=dead |type=video}}{{self-published inline|date=September 2024|certain=yes}}

Ouellette was the founding director of the Science & Entertainment Exchange,{{r|Ars Technica}} an initiative of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) designed to connect entertainment industry professionals with top scientists and engineers to help the creators of television shows, films, video games, and other productions incorporate science into their work.{{cite press release |last1=O'Leary |first1=Maureen |title=NAS announces initiative to connect entertainment industry with top experts |url=https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/505957 |access-date=26 September 2024 |work=EurekAlert! |date=19 November 2008}}

{{blockquote|The National Academy is hoping to basically foster this current trend in television and get more interactions between science and Hollywood, in the hopes of changing the way science and scientists are portrayed. [...] We want Hollywood to basically help us inspire people and to get them interested in science and in rationalism so that they then go on to read more and become more educated.{{cite web |last1=Saunders |first1=Richard |last2=Sojka |first2=Stefan |title=The Skeptic Zone #35 - 19.June.2009 |url=https://skepticzone.libsyn.com/the_skeptic_zone_35_19_june_2009 |website=The Skeptic Zone |date=Jun 19, 2009 |type=podcast}}{{self-published inline|date=September 2024|certain=yes}}}}

She also served as a Journalist in Residence at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics in 2008{{cite web |title=Jennifer Ouellette |url=http://www.kitp.ucsb.edu/journalist_in_residence/jennifer-ouellette |publisher=UC Santa Barbara; Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121102004715/http://www.kitp.ucsb.edu/journalist_in_residence/jennifer-ouellette |archive-date=2 November 2012}} and worked in New Mexico with the Santa Fe Science Writing Workshop as an instructor in 2009.{{cite web |title=Santa Fe Science Writing Workshop |url=http://www.sciwrite.org/sciwrite/sciwrite.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120608085404/http://sciwrite.org/sciwrite/sciwrite.html |archive-date=8 June 2012}}

From 1995 until 2004, Ouellette was a contributing editor of The Industrial Physicist magazine, published by the American Institute of Physics.{{cite web |title=Features Index |url=http://www.tipmagazine.com/features.html |work=The Industrial Physicist |publisher=American Institute of Physics |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120202143843/http://www.tipmagazine.com/features.html |archive-date=2 February 2012}}{{Nonspecific|date=September 2024}} She is currently{{When|date=September 2024}} a freelance writer contributing to a physics outreach dialogue with articles in a variety of publications such as Physics World,{{cite journal |last=Ouellette |first=Jennifer |title=The Scholar and the Caliph |journal=Physics World |date=5 January 2011 |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=21–24 |doi=10.1088/2058-7058/24/01/31 |bibcode=2011PhyW...24a..21O |url=https://physicsworld.com/a/the-scholar-and-the-caliph/ |access-date=26 Sep 2024}} Discover magazine,{{cite magazine |last=Ouellette |first=Jennifer |title=Big Game Theory |magazine=Discover |date=November 2010 |pages=58–62 |issn=0274-7529 |url=https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/one-of-the-great-frontiers-for-modern-physicists-poker |access-date=26 Sep 2024 |url-access=limited}} New Scientist,{{cite magazine |last=Ouellette |first=Jennifer |title=Mechanical mysteries of the yodel |magazine=New Scientist |date=30 December 2007 |issue=2635 |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19626352.300 |access-date=1 July 2012}} Physics Today,{{cite journal |last=Ouellette |first=Jennifer |title=Femtosecond Lasers Prepare to Break Out of the Laboratory |journal=Physics Today |date=January 2008 |volume=61 |issue=1 |pages=36–38 |doi=10.1063/1.2835147 |bibcode=2008PhT....61a..36O}} The Wall Street Journal.{{cite news |last=Ouellette |first=Jennifer |title=Going With the Flow |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703720504575377123375671294 |access-date=26 Sep 2024 |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal |date=July 23, 2010 |url-access=subscription}} and Quanta Magazine{{Cite web |url=https://www.quantamagazine.org/tensor-networks-and-entanglement-20150428/ |title=Tensor Networks and Entanglement |website=Quanta Magazine |date=April 28, 2015 |access-date=2019-09-27}}

Ouellette has given interviews to NPR's Science Friday and SETI's Seth Shostak, and appeared in panel discussions at The Amaz!ng Meeting,{{cite web |title=The Amaz!ng Meeting 7 Speakers |url=https://archive.randi.org/site/index.php/component/content/article/37-static/448-the-amazing-meeting-7-speakers.html |publisher=James Randi Educational Foundation |access-date=26 September 2024 |date=24 February 2009}} Dragon Con,{{cite web |title=Guests {{!}} Jennifer Ouellette |website=Dragoncon.org |url=http://dragoncon.org/dc_guest_detail.php?id=2192 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101004010653/http://dragoncon.org/dc_guest_detail.php?id=2192 |archive-date=4 October 2010}} Center for Inquiry, and the National Association of Science Writers.{{cite news |last1=Sunshine |first1=Wendy Lyons |title=What's science got to do with it? Thinking outside the lab |url=https://www.nasw.org/article/whats-science-got-do-it-thinking-outside-lab |access-date=26 September 2024 |publisher=National Association of Science Writers |date=n.d. |location=Berkeley, Calif.}} She appeared on NOVA in 2008 and on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson in 2011 to discuss her book The Calculus Diaries and winning a coveted Golden Mouth Organ.{{cite episode |number=7-106 |date=11 Feb 2011 |series=The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson |network=CBS}}

Until September 2015, she wrote a blog for Scientific American titled Cocktail Party Physics,{{r|Ouellette 2015}} where she and other female contributors chatted about the latest science news: "You just tell entertaining stories and weave the science in and it’s a way of getting people familiar and interested in what is normally kind of a scary subject for them." In 2015, Ouellette became senior science editor at Gizmodo.{{cite web |last1=Ouellette |first1=Jennifer |title=Bidding a Fond Farewell |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/cocktail-party-physics/bidding-a-fond-farewell/ |access-date=26 Sep 2024 |work=Cocktail Party Physics |publisher=Scientific American Blog Network |date=1 September 2015 |url-access=limited}}

In 2018, she joined Ars Technica as a contributor.{{cite news |last1=Timmer |first1=John |title=Please join us in welcoming Ars' newest contributor, Jennifer Ouellette |url=https://arstechnica.com/staff/2018/08/please-join-us-in-welcoming-ars-newest-contributor-jennifer-ouellette/ |access-date=26 September 2024 |work=Ars Technica |date=16 August 2018}} {{As of|2024}} she is a senior writer for the site.{{cite web |title=Jennifer Ouellette / Senior Writer |url=https://arstechnica.com/author/jenniferouellette/ |website=Ars Technica |access-date=26 September 2024}}

She is a member of the Authors Guild and the National Association of Science Writers.{{r|Encyclopedia.com 2024}}

• Science writing award, Acoustical Society of America{{r|Encyclopedia.com 2024}}
• Humanist of the Year, American Humanist Association (AHA), 2018{{Cite press release |last=Couch |first=Amy |url=https://americanhumanist.org/press-releases/aha-announces-2018-humanist-year/ |title=AHA Announces the 2018 Humanist of the Year |date=2018-03-30 |publisher=American Humanist Association |language=en-US |access-date=26 Sep 2024}}

Ouellette holds a black belt in jiu jitsu.{{r|Encyclopedia.com 2024}} She is married to physicist Sean M. Carroll.{{cite book |last1=Ouellette |first1=Jennifer |title=The Calculus Diaries: A Year Discovering How Maths Can Help You Lose Weight, Win in Vegas, and Survive a Zombie Apocalypse |date=2012 |publisher=Duckworth Overlook |location=London |isbn=978-0-7156-4513-0 |page=ii |url=https://archive.org/details/calculusdiariesh0000ouel/page/n1/mode/1up?ref=ol&view=theater |url-access=registration}} They live in Baltimore, Maryland.{{r|Ars Technica}}

Accepting her Humanist of the Year award at the AHA's 2018 conference, Oullette spoke of her brother's struggle with and death from cancer, saying medical professionals should not "hide behind euphemisms and platitudes" that hinder end of life decision making, and about patients' need for frankness and honesty about their prognosis. She spoke about the suffering due to the limitations of the medical profession's current understanding of pain management and the need for research, and about her support for right-to-die legislation.{{Cite magazine |url=https://thehumanist.com/magazine/november-december-2018/features/the-ending-needs-work |title=The Ending Needs Work: Humanists Can Lead on End-of-Life Decisions |date=2018-10-23 |magazine=The Humanist |language=en-US |access-date=26 Sep 2024 |last=Oullette |first=Jennifer |publisher=American Humanist Association |location=Washington, D.C. |volume=78 |issue=6 |pages=12–15 |issn=0018-7399}}

• {{cite book |author=Jennifer Ouellette |title=Black Bodies and Quantum Cats: Tales from the Annals of Physics |url=https://archive.org/details/blackbodiesquant00ouel |url-access=registration |publisher=Penguin Books |location=New York |date=2005 |isbn=978-0143036036}}
• {{cite book |author=Jennifer Ouellette |author-mask=4 |title=The Physics of the Buffyverse |url=https://archive.org/details/physicsofbuffyve00ouel |url-access=registration |others=illustrated by Paul Dlugokencky |publisher=Penguin Books |location=New York |date=2006 |isbn=0143038621}}
• {{cite book |author=Jennifer Ouellette |author-mask=4 |title=The Calculus Diaries: How Math Can Help You Lose Weight, Win in Vegas, and Survive a Zombie Apocalypse |publisher=Penguin Books |date=2010 |isbn=978-0143117377}}
• {{cite book |author=Jennifer Ouellette |author-mask=4 |title=The Best Science Writing Online 2012 |contribution=Introduction |editor-first=Bora |editor-last=Zivkovic |publisher=Scientific American; Farrar, Straus and Giroux |location=New York |date=2012 |isbn=978-0374533342 |oclc=824733257 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/bestsciencewriti0000unse}}
• {{cite book |author=Jennifer Ouellette |author-mask=4 |title=Me, Myself, and Why: Searching for the Science of Self |publisher=Penguin Books |location=New York |date=2014 |isbn=978-0143121657}}

{{Reflist|2}}

• {{Official website|http://www.jenniferouellette-writes.com}}
• {{IMDb name|4431313|ennifer Ouellette}}
• [https://twistedphysics.typepad.com/ Cocktail Party Physics] via Typepad
• [http://www.scienceandentertainmentexchange.org Science and Entertainment Exchange website]

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Category:Living people

Category:American science writers

Category:American magazine editors

Category:American women magazine editors

Category:American skeptics

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)