Season 4, Episode 2 -- Casey Berger: Choose Your Own Multidimensional Career

Science in Parallel

Traditional science career advice often urges people to specialize and become the best at one activity. But that perspective can undervalue interdisciplinary researchers and other polymaths who can see connections between and beyond science and engineering fields. This episode’s guest, Casey Berger, describes how she has navigated this second approach, embracing her many interests, such as science, computing, teaching and storytelling, to make her mark as a physicist and data scientist and as a fiction author.

In the second episode of our podcast series on creativity in computing, Casey talks about her path to physics and computing via Hollywood. She describes the challenges and opportunities of interdisciplinary work, how she pursues her many interests and her advice for building a sustainable, joyful life and career.

You’ll meet:

Casey Berger is an assistant professor of physics and data science at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2020 and was supported by a Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (DOE CSGF). She earned bachelor’s degrees in physics from Ohio State University and in philosophy and film production from Boston University.

Casey is also a science fiction author. Her latest novel Sister from the Multiverse, part of the Choose Your Own Adventure series, was published in October 2023. This conversation was recorded in July 2023 at the Annual Program Review of the DOE CSGF in Washington, D.C.