In the blog series on “How We Write,” we feature researchers and scholars who have found success through writing impactful manuscripts or funded proposals. How do they do it? Let’s find out!
During a time that many researchers at Colorado State University are experiencing great uncertainty in grant funding, it is all the more exciting to celebrate good news. This newsletter we share the bright light of success at CSU with a feature on Dr. Megan Willis, her recent grant success, and the writing practice that have supported her (and her students’) work.
Dr. Megan Willis is an environmental analytical chemist and Assistant Professor in the Chemistry Department, where she and her students seek to understand aerosol formation and chemistry and the resulting impacts on climate and air quality. Specifically, they use field observations, laboratory studies and kinetic models to provide process-level information to atmospheric models.
This spring Megan received a prestigious NSF Career award from NSF’s Division of Chemistry–Environmental Chemical Sciences to support both novel research and ongoing education outreach initiatives. Here’s what Megan had to say about her success and process (note, we did not ask Megan to pitch CSU Writes, but we appreciated the shout out):
CSU Writes: “Please share a bit out the grant you were recently awarded.”
Megan: “The NSF Career Award […] supports my group’s focus on the atmospheric aqueous phase chemistry of biogenic sulfur emitted from Earth’s oceans. We aim to understand how biogenic sulfur is processed in the atmosphere, which has implications for global cloud reflectivity over oceans. This award also supports our ongoing collaboration with the CSU Natural Sciences Education and Outreach Center, to develop hands-on education materials around the multiphase chemistry of acid rain.”
CSU Writes: “Can you tell us about your process for writing this proposal – any specifics of your writing practice and process as well as any major successes or even catastrophes – and anything you learned from these?”
Megan: “My writing process for this proposal was lengthy. I began focused work on this project in the previous summer and discovered relatively quickly that I had set out to write the equivalent of perhaps five proposals, rather than one. This led to a long process of narrowing the scope for this proposal and developing an education component that was reasonably in line with the research side of the project.
When the summer of 2024 began, I felt lost in process and was quite close to giving up. Fortunately, that was when CSU Writes began an “Early Career Pilot” program together with the Research Acceleration Office. This support and community allowed me to complete the proposal, and I believe was central to my success.”
CSU Writes: “What writing advice would you share with others?”
Megan: “Three things come to mind here:
(1) Begin early.
(2) Write for a few hours every day.
(3) Leverage a wide community of support for writing — especially CSU Writes!”
CSU Writes: “Now that you’ve achieved these awards, is there anything you would like to share about how this success is inspiring or guiding you moving forward?”
Megan: “Being still quite early in my proposal writing career, I think achieving this award has helped me to begin to trust my instincts for scientific ideas.”
Thank you to Megan for graciously sharing her success, experiences, and advice with us. We appreciate being able to celebrate CSU writing excellence and success these days. To all, be well and write on!