Maya Wei-Haas is currently a science writer for National Geographic. Prior to this position, she spent almost three years as an assistant editor for science and innovation at Smithsonian.com. She was responsible for the “Smart News” vertical, which covered breaking stories that put a Smithsonian lens on the world. In a former life, she was an academic and got her Ph.D. from Ohio State University in environmental chemistry. After graduate school, she was awarded a AAAS Mass Media Fellowship, which helped her make the jump from science to journalism. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in geology from Smith College.

Twitter: @WeiPoints