Scientific Writing, Editing, and Grant Support
Communicating science is a challenging task. Academic researchers have to write about their science in a way that effectively communicates their motivations, approaches, and findings for a broad (though scientifically trained) audience. This becomes especially difficult when writing grants: reviewers are often not experts in the grant’s topic, writing must be balanced with research, mentoring, and teaching, and deadlines are tight. Junior investigators may have the additional struggles of not being familiar with funding agency requirements or simply having less experience writing proposals.
Fortunately, the UConn School of Medicine employs a PhD-trained scientist with writing, editing, and illustration/graphics experience to support faculty needs. Dr. Bernard Cook received his BS and PhD in Biomedical Engineering from The Ohio State University and the University of Minnesota, respectively, and has research experience in developing neuropsychiatric diagnostic applications, injury biomechanics and gross anatomy, and mechanobiology and deformable body mechanics. As such, he has experience effectively communicating science across a broad range of disciplines through writing, editing, and creating illustrations/graphics. He is an expert in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint and Adobe Illustrator.
Dr. Cook works with faculty on scientific communication at any stage of the process: outlining, writing, editing, and formatting. Primarily, he helps faculty with grant submissions but will support any scientific communication-related deliverables such as manuscripts, presentations, and educational materials. To help visually communicate research, he is also available to help faculty create graphics/illustrations that communicate aims, procedures, conclusions, etc.
Importantly, Dr. Cook always keeps the audience in mind. When supporting grants, for example, he will ensure that he is familiar with the specific funding opportunity and will include required or helpful language to highlight information important for that specific opportunity or for the funding agency more broadly.
If you are interested in working with Dr. Cook, please reach out to him directly (email is preferred) to begin a conversation. Please consider the nature of your request before you reach out: more involved requests (such as writing, developing scientific rationale, or providing heavy edits to content) require a 1–2 week notice. Lighter requests, such as editing for grammar, punctuation, and spelling, have a 1–2 day turnaround time.
Contact:
Bernard L. Cook, PhD
Science Writer, Editor, and Illustrator
Email: becook@uchc.edu
Phone: 860-679-5120