Laura L Mays Hoopes lives in Claremont, CA. She is Halstead-Bent Professor of biology emerita at Pomona College. Her research on molecular gerontology has been supported by over two million dollars in grant funds. Laura is married and has two grown children and one wonderful grandchild. In 2019, she released Opening Doors: Joan Steitz and Jennifer Doudna, Two Women of the RNA World. Laura believes in balancing career and family, as shown in her memoir, Breaking Through the Spiral Ceiling:An American Woman Becomes a DNA Scientist. For five years, she moderated the Women in Science Forum for the scientific journal Nature. After years of writing about science in passive voice and avoiding first person pronouns, she enjoys the freedom of creative writing. Laura received a Certificate in creative writing from UCLA in 2009 and an MFA in ENGLISH/Fiction at San Diego State University in 2013. The amount of joy and hard work that go into writing astonish her. She has published over twenty shorter works such as short stories, poetry, and personal essays. In 2013, Laura received the Jack London Award from the California Writers Club. She has been a mentor with WriteGirl, the outreach group to at-risk high school girls. She enjoys speaking to groups about her books, issues for women in science, why there are so few women science professors at Harvard, career-family balance, writing nonfiction and fiction, and creating a new career when over 65. Laura is currently working on a novel about a woman becoming an ecologist and a novel about a girl who needs to learn to be bad so she can write interesting stories for publication.
