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Sarah Wettstadt - founder of the Sunny Scientist blog as well as the science writing business MicroComms, the science communication coaching business SciComm Society and the microbiology blog BacterialWorld.

A scientist's sunny story

Hey there,

I’m Sarah, a scientist-turned online writer and world traveller. Throughout my time as a PhD and postdoc in microbiology, I was seeing what a potential career in academia would look like. I believed in scientific research as I was always curious about how life works and how different players interact to make our planet function. I knew that only by completely understanding the details of biology, we would be able to apply our knowledge and create technologies to improve people’s lives.

So, I thought being a researcher and always at the edge of human knowledge would satisfy my curiosity. However, I also felt extremely restricted by the academic environment; I was physically dependent on a lab to do research, my location of residence would depend on an institute to hire me and/or an agency to pay for my salary, I would only be recognised as a “real” scientist after publishing in high-impact journals. And lastly, there was just never enough in academia; a scientific career could only move upward. All of this perfectionism and shaming gave me anxiety and worries about the future, which I wasn’t too happy about.

From the bench to the beach

So, in 2020, I took the empowering step to leave academia and create my own “scientific career”. I still wanted to help advance science, to learn about how life works and to improve people’s lives with research. I just didn’t want to be the one in the lab anymore.

I decided to become a science writer and communicator, writing about and sharing scientific knowledge with other scientists and non-scientists. And while creating my own niche scientific career, I also found many ways on how to empower myself and improve my own life to get back the freedom I was missing before.

During this self-finding process, I often wished I’d known about these approaches and methods during my time in academia. But as everything in life, if we do not know what else is possible, we only perceive what we see as reality. So, at the beginning of 2023, I decided to start the Sunny Scientist blog to empower you as a scientist to make your scientific life easier and improve your overall well-being. I want to show you options on what is possible; give you different tools and change your perspective so you can see that a scientific career doesn’t NEED to be this hard.

Seeing the sun at the end of the scientific tunnel

I know that sometimes in academia it seems as if there is just no light at the end of the tunnel. You have no idea how to move on or how to achieve the next step.

So, the Sunny Scientist blog aims at empowering you in your scientific career. This blog will introduce you to different life hacks on how to improve your lab day, your career and your mental and physical well-being. In my opinion, to improve one’s life holistically, one needs to work on different aspects. Hence, blog posts fall into the following categories:

  • Project management and lab organisation
  • Physical and mental health
  • Personal growth
  • Scientific careers
  • Science and sustainability

Find sunny life hacks on how to improve your scientific day

Read the blog

These posts will introduce you to different concepts or models and give you practical tips to apply throughout your scientific day. Please note: I’m not saying that you have to apply everything or that applying them will definitely help you. Every person is different and every person (or mind) needs something else. Some of what I’m saying might not resonate with you at all and that’s totally okay. While I’m giving you the tools, it is still up to you to decide whether and how you want to use them.

And yes, some of these tools or some pieces of content I will ask you to pay for. But this is only because I spent a lot of time and energy creating them. As I only create and offer tools that I truly believe in and that I would find helpful, I’ll make sure they will be your money’s worth.

Maybe you find that certain tools are more or less working for you and you want to share your experience. In that case, you are welcome to leave feedback or comments below the post; others might also find your thoughts helpful. Otherwise, you can send me an email (hello @ sunnyscientist.com) with your feedback or fill out the contact form.

Reach out!

Making this world a sunnier place

As everything in life, I know that I cannot go it alone. For complex overarching goals like “advancing science” (I tend to think big!), we need the heads and efforts of many. So, if you have an idea of what is currently missing in the lives of scientists or how to improve the academic field, feel free to reach out.

Whatever your motivation is that brought you to the Sunny Scientist, I hope you’ll get some ideas on how to make your life a little sunnier. I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Sarah ☀️