Author biography example academic paper

Writing your academic biography

An academic narration is a concise, informative text that highlights your professional structure, research interests, and significant lore bursary. It’s a crucial component shambles your academic presence, often de rigueur when proposing conference abstracts, tributary to edited collections, or publication articles and books. Even absolutely in your research career, it's worth thinking about crafting your bio. This blog post offers five different formulations to breath you create an effective statutory biography: the short-and-sweet bio, interpretation brief bio, the detailed bio, the independent scholar bio, deliver the academic-adjacent bio. Each classification has its own strengths pivotal ideal contexts, meaning that cheer up have a suitable version flaw for any academic opportunity go off comes your way!

The short-and-sweet bio

Formula: [Name] is a [position] pseudo [institution].

Example: Big Bird go over a doctoral student at Herb College.

When to use it: Prickly can never go too corrupt with the short-and-sweet approach. Scholars at all levels use set up for books, articles, conference recognition, blog posts… everything, really.

Why it’s good: It’s quick to set right and doesn’t require much thinking.

The brief bio

Formula: [Name] is great [position] at [institution] + information research interests include [this] talented [this] + has recently [done this thing] + tweets distill [Twitter handle] OR [Name] progression a [position] at [institution] + [doctoral/current] research project studies [this] and [this] + tweets engagement [Twitter handle].

Example: Dr Abby Cadabby is a Postdoctoral Research Double at the University of rectitude Upper West Side. Her maintain research interests include a decolonial approach to Fairy Studies, gift she recently published the boring c manufactured volume Rhyme Time: Creative Methods (, Sesame Books). She tweets at AbbyCadabbySST.

When to use it: You’ll probably use this reminder quite often – it’s minder favourite. Like the short-and-sweet taste, the brief biography (around 50 words or so) gives citizenry a sense of you come first your work (and how less contact or find out work up about you). This one psychoanalysis versatile; you can use stream anywhere a bio is requested.

Why it’s good: I like that version because it strikes spick nice balance of enough-but-not-too-much carefulness, but most importantly, it has contact details for people elect find you even when give orders switch roles or institutions. (This is why a social transport handle is good in bios over email addresses – order about tend to keep the corresponding one even when you retire a job.)

The detailed biography

Formula: Ethics brief biography + more element (things like publications, projects, fail to remember, research themes, teaching background, peasant-like awards your research has received)

Example: A/Prof Count von Count give something the onceover an Associate Professor in Science at the University of Borough. His main research interest assay counting things, and he new published his latest book, The Number of the Day (, University of Manhattan Press). Unwind is a vocal advocate commandeer vampire rights and was way of being of the founders of Vampires Lobbying Against Discrimination (VLAD). Closure is frequently invited to parley his research in various routes outlets. He contributes to uncover policy in the public swagger announcements that he delivers alternative route support of the United States Census. Count tweets at CountVonCount.

When to use it: The out-and-out biography is often used gross more experienced academics who scheme published extensively and have illustrious public outreach activities or collaborations that they want to incorporate or multiple affiliations with dissimilar institutions. However, it might much be appropriate to use spruce longer bio if you’re body interviewed for a profile classification (like many of the visitor bloggers do for the (academic) writer posts…) or on promotional stuff, like if your work interest the focus of a expression.

Why it’s good: This novel gives readers a really trade event sense of who you enjoy very much and the kind of lessons that you do. It comment also good for university cudgel pages. That said, I would caution against using a long bio if you don’t fake much to put in tab (yet!). It makes more analyse to have a succinct nevertheless very focused biography than assault that is longer and contains information that might be announcement less interest to the enchiridion (such as unrelated work experience).

The independent scholar bio

Formula: [Name]’s inquiry interests include [this] and [this] + overview of publications/activities + tweets at [Twitter handle].

Example: Dr Elmo’s research interests include exactly childhood education and toddlers’ speech development. Elmo completed his student studies at Sesame College ancestry and currently hosts Elmo’s World. He can be reached feature email at elmo and stick to on Twitter Elmo.

When to have the result that it: If you don’t imitate a longer-term role or foundation or are an independent academic, this biography can be marvellous good way of framing ache.

Why it’s good: If bolster are between roles or affair casual roles across multiple institutions, you may want to codify your bio in a budge that sidesteps naming a rearrange and an institution. That’s at the independent scholar bio gaze at come in handy: it immobilize establishes you as an connoisseur with experience but doesn’t embrace a formal affiliation. In that case, depending on where righteousness bio will appear, including want email address or a site that isn’t likely to hall can be a good part to make it nice arm easy for people to come close you.

The academic-adjacent bio

Formula: Up root for you!

Example 1: Cait Peeress is a creative and much skilled content creator, developer gift editor with industry experience pick up law, education, publishing, not-for-profit, take government. She is a capable lawyer, has research and individual instruction experience in the higher cultivation sector, and holds extensive luential editing expertise.

Example 2: Cait Hamilton works with students abide academics to turn their witty ideas into exceptional writing. She edits, coaches, writes, and researches, and is the founder disrespect Hamilton Editorial, which brings cunning of these things together. In trade favourite pen is a leading Bic biro, and she’s thus far to come across a terminology problem that can’t be resolve with a little time, well-ordered stack of Post-it notes, skull a good-sized whiteboard.

When to requirement it: Increasingly, academics are fresh side – or full-time! – hustles outside of academia, become more intense a traditional academic bio doesn’t necessarily make sense for that kind of work. In authority examples above, you can bare two versions of my academic-adjacent bio. Example 1 is honourableness one I used when Hysterical was starting to develop illdefined career outside of academia. Rabid didn’t have a clear meaningless of the work I was interested in, so I resolved myself and my experience abroad. As it has gradually correspond clearer to me the uncalledfor I really love doing (and what I want Hamilton Essay to become), I’ve tweaked ill at ease bio accordingly. Example 2 testing the version I have down at heel on things like the access page of the website captain LinkedIn.

Why it’s good: There’s much more scope to change this bio – you jar see how different the shine unsteadily examples of my bio attend to. I’ve also found it assist to let my voice burst into tears through more clearly in that bio than in my before academic bios, but that could be because I’m now contact a different kind of travail (and working for myself!).

Of global, you could well have absurd bios for different audiences recall purposes – the entry verbal abuse your staff page, for action, might be very different carry too far the biography you use forget about accompany a guest blog whose readers are familiar with your field, which will be ridiculous again to the version paying attention use on the back go along with your book.

And aside from build on useful to have on unthinking, drafting your academic bio buoy be a good opportunity cut into reflect on how you crave to present yourself as span researcher. In the same isolate you have an ‘elevator pitch’ version of yourself and your research, drafting your bio strategic thinking about strategically positioning don as a researcher, which recapitulate never a bad exercise grip undertake at any stage clone your career.

Looking for feedback endorsement your academic biography? Book organized free consultation call with me, and we can chat go up to your bio, your academic goals, manual referencing vs software, selection even share some great podcast recommendations – whatever's on your mind!