BioSpace, the largest digital media and recruitment platform for the life sciences industry, welcomes Sarita Menon, Ph.D., as its Managing Editor.
BioSpace, the largest digital media and recruitment platform for the life sciences industry, welcomes Sarita Menon, Ph.D., as its Managing Editor.
Sarita will be responsible for realigning and developing BioSpace’s content initiatives to better serve its community of life sciences and support the growth of its editorial team. BioSpace CEO, Josh Goodwin said: “We are excited to have Sarita bring her entrepreneurial mindset and scientific background to BioSpace to lead the evolution of our content offerings and assist in growing our community of over one million life sciences professionals.”
Academic and professional career
Sarita is an award-winning life sciences professional who brings more than 20+ years of combined experience in academic research and publishing.
“Having worked in academia, industry and publishing, I’m very excited to bring my knowledge and leadership experience to BioSpace so we can continue building this incredible community,” Sarita said.
Prior to joining BioSpace, Sarita worked as an independent consultant and served in roles to provide content strategy and editorial support for companies in the life sciences industry including ThermoFisher, BioRad, and Blue Mountain.
She grew up in India where she earned a bachelor’s in chemistry and went on to obtain a masters in biotechnology from the Indian Institute of Technology, in Mumbai, India, before coming to The University of Iowa for her PhD.
Her research interests and training have primarily been in the field of cancer cell biology beginning with her PhD dissertation where she researched the role of intracellular redox environment in tumorigenesis. She went on to pursue postdoctoral work at the University at Buffalo. Her research focus there was posttranscriptional gene regulation for which she also won an American Heart Association Training Award. She found her way back into cancer cell biology with her second postdoctoral position at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
Sarita left academic research to spend two years as an adjunct faculty in the Biosciences department at the University of Houston Downtown. “My experience there made me realize the importance of building a strong science and math foundation in children from an early age and how much of an impact it has on their lifelong success,” she said.
A dedication to equity and transition to publishing
Driven by that realization, in 2017, Sarita ventured into the world of publishing and launched Smore Science, an international science magazine, to inspire children, especially young girls, to pursue STEM futures. Sarita led the editorial and marketing strategy for Smore and succeeded in growing the brand to where it now reaches thousands of children worldwide and has received notable mentions from leading media outlets and academic institutions.
As a woman in science who has been in the trenches, Sarita is also a passionate advocate for equal women and minority representation in the sciences and has shared her thoughts as a TEDx and keynote speaker.
“I think it is critical to spotlight and celebrate the scientific contributions of underrepresented populations as part of diversity and inclusion efforts across both academia and industry,” Sarita noted.
Shaping the future of BioSpace
“This is an incredible opportunity to build coalitions between the scientific community and life sciences industry – BioSpace has so much potential to be a space that enables them to connect and thrive. I’m excited to be a part of that,” Sarita said.
