Kat Arney

Kat Arney
Born Katharine Luisa Arney
Italy
Nationality British
Fields Cancer research
Institutions
Alma mater University of Cambridge (PhD)
Thesis Epigenetic modification in the mouse zygote and regulation of imprinted genes (2002)
Doctoral advisor Azim Surani[1]
Other academic advisors Amanda Fisher[1]
Known for Science Blogging
Science Podcasts
Website
katarney.wordpress.com

Katharine Luisa Arney is a British science communicator, author and harpist.[2] She is a regular co-host of The Naked Scientists, a BBC Radio programme and podcast, and also hosts the BBC Radio 5 Live Science Show.[3] She has written numerous articles and columns for Science,[4] The Guardian,[5] New Scientist[6] the BBC and others.[7]

Education

Arney was educated at the University of Cambridge where she was awarded a PhD in 2002 for research into epigenetic modification in the mouse zygote and regulation of imprinted genes.[8] Her PhD was supervised by Azim Surani[1][9] and included research on Insulin-like growth factor 2 and the H19 gene.[10] She went on to do postdoctoral research at Imperial College London working in the laboratory of Amanda Fisher.[1][11][12]

Career

Arney is a strong advocate for involvement of women in Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), but "hates pink" - she considers attempts to make science look more "girlie" to be patronising and unnecessary.[13]

From 2004 to 2016 she was science communications manager for Cancer Research UK.[14] One notable success in this role was the "#NoMakeupSelfie" hashtag as it trended in August 2014; this was noted by CRUK's social media team who used a photograph of Arney - one of the charity's main media spokespeople - to publicise the SMS number for donations. After more than 5 million views, the hashtag raised in excess of £8 million for Cancer Research UK.[15]

Her first book, Herding Hemingway's Cats, which was published in January 2016 by Bloomsbury Publishing, covers the state of knowledge of the human genome, the advances made since the 1950s and what remains unknown. It also addresses misconceptions about epigenetics and non-DNA inheritance.[16][17]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Arney, Kat (2010). "Ada Lovelace day – Professor Amanda Fisher". katarney.wordpress.com. Archived from the original on 2013-11-16.
  2. Telling tales about science , Women in Science and Engineering Campaign.
  3. "interview with Kat Arney". CSICOP.
  4. "Articles by Kat Arney at Science magazine". sciencemag.org. AAAS.
  5. "Articles by Kat Arney at The Guardian". theguardian.com. London: The Guardian.
  6. Arney, Kat (2015). "Epigenetics". New Scientist. 228 (3051): 39. doi:10.1016/S0262-4079(15)31765-6.
  7. "Articles by Kat Arney at Cancer Research UK". cancerresearchuk.org.
  8. Arney, Katharine Luisa (2002). Epigenetic modification in the mouse zygote and regulation of imprinted genes (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. OCLC 894595629.
  9. K. L. Arney, S. Erhardt, R. A. Drewell & M. A. Surani (2001). "Epigenetic reprogramming of the genome--from the germ line to the embryo and back again". The International Journal of Developmental Biology. 45 (3): 533–540. PMID 11417896.
  10. Arney, Katharine L (2003). "H19 and Igf2 – enhancing the confusion?". Trends in Genetics. 19 (1): 17–23. doi:10.1016/S0168-9525(02)00004-5.
  11. Arney, Katharine L.; Fisher, Amanda G. (2004). "Epigenetic aspects of differentiation". Journal of Cell Science. 117 (19): 4355–4363. doi:10.1242/jcs.01390. PMID 15331660.
  12. Kat Arney's publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database, a service provided by Elsevier. (subscription required)
  13. 'I hate pink. It is hugely patronising to think making things pink will get girls into science' Times Educational Supplement.
  14. speaker profile, NCRI conference
  15. The lessons that CRUK learned from nomakeupselfies, Third Sector.
  16. Anon (2016). "Nonfiction Book Review: Herding Hemingway's Cats: Understanding How Our Genes Work by Kat Arney". publishersweekly.com. Publishers Weekly.
  17. Herding Hemingway’s Cats: Understanding How Our Genes Work ISBN 978-1-4729-1004-2


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