Mark Pontin
I’m a writer/editor with three decades of experience of analyzing innovations and emerging trends across a range of scientific, technological and business realms.
I’ve covered global security issues, healthcare, venture capital and emerging tech, among other things. In my time, I’ve worked for high-end media like MIT Technology Review, Forbes, ABC News, and Ars Technica, but also for more prosaic outlets like British Airways Business Life, Forefront UC Berkeley Engineering School Mag, SiliconIndia, and many others.
Most specifically, I’ve covered life sciences/bioengineering for so long that I interviewed the Russian scientists who developed the world’s first novel designer pathogens for the former USSR’s bioweapons program, worked with the director of Genentech’s synthetic insulin R&D (Genentech was the first real biotech company), and was talking to synthetic biologists like George Church and Drew Endy from the early 2000s onwards.
Nowadays, I make my living primarily as a technical/contract writer, mostly for venture capital firms in the biotech space. Still, when the subject interests me, I continue to do journalism. I also was Assistant Editor on Twelve Tomorrows, an anthology of hard science fiction stories, published by the MIT Press in 2018.
I can be reached at mark@markpontin.com and via tel. +1-925-791-8227.
Experience
2011 – Present
present
Writer, Editor
Technical and Contract Writer for VC firms like Flagship Pioneering (responsible for Moderna), and others.
References available on request.
•
Contributor to outlets like Ars Technica, MIT Technology Review, ABC News, Forefront UC Berkeley Engineering School Mag, Forbes, British Airways Business Life, & others.
•
2004 – 2011
MIT Technology Review — Editor, Writer
Wrote a large number of analytic pieces on subjects like biodefense, archeogenetics, optogenetics, global security, geoengineering, nuclear deterrence, nuclear power, spaceflight, quantum networks, surveillance, venture capital, and economics.
•
Wrote long-form features (up to 8,000 words), including cover stories like this one.
•
2002 – 2004
Acumen Journal of Life Sciences — Editor, Writer
Helped launch this magazine startup whose founding credo was that, after IT, the revolution in life sciences and biogenetic technologies would create the next era of economic growth and human advance.
•
Wrote and edited stories (inclding long cover features) analyzing trends in biodefense, de novo DNA synthesis, regenerative medicine, pharmaceutical development, and general healthcare.
•
1996 – 2002
Red Herring — Editor, Writer
Covered dotcom-era emerging technologies,early-stage companies, healthcare, computing, the energy industry and e-commerce from a VC standpoint.
•
Interviewed top business and tech thinkers, such as Peter Drucker, the original management theorist.
•
Education
1983 – 1985
King’s College, London, U.K. — MA, Science, Technology, and
Medicine in History
1979 -1982
King’s College, London, U.K. — BA, History and Science
Mark Pontin
I’m a writer/editor with three decades of experience of analyzing innovations and emerging trends across a range of scientific, technological and business realms.
I’ve covered global security issues, healthcare, venture capital and emerging tech, among other things. In my time, I’ve worked for high-end media like MIT Technology Review, Forbes, ABC News, and Ars Technica, but also for more prosaic outlets like British Airways Business Life, Forefront UC Berkeley Engineering School Mag, SiliconIndia, and many others.
Most specifically, I’ve covered life sciences/bioengineering for so long that I interviewed the Russian scientists who developed the world’s first novel designer pathogens for the former USSR’s bioweapons program, worked with the director of Genentech’s synthetic insulin R&D (Genentech was the first real biotech company), and was talking to synthetic biologists like George Church and Drew Endy from the early 2000s onwards.
Nowadays, I make my living primarily as a technical/contract writer, mostly for venture capital firms in the biotech space. Still, when the subject interests me, I continue to do journalism. I also was Assistant Editor on Twelve Tomorrows, an anthology of hard science fiction stories, published by the MIT Press in 2018.
I can be reached at mark@markpontin.com and via tel. +1-925-791-8227.
Experience
2011 – Present
present
Writer, Editor
Technical and Contract Writer for VC firms like Flagship Pioneering (responsible for Moderna), and others.
References available on request.
•
Contributor to outlets like Ars Technica, MIT Technology Review, ABC News, Forefront UC Berkeley Engineering School Mag, Forbes, British Airways Business Life, & others.
•
2004 – 2011
MIT Technology Review — Editor, Writer
Wrote a large number of analytic pieces on subjects like biodefense, archeogenetics, optogenetics, global security, geoengineering, nuclear deterrence, nuclear power, spaceflight, quantum networks, surveillance, venture capital, and economics.
•
Wrote long-form features (up to 8,000 words), including cover stories like this one.
•
2002 – 2004
Acumen Journal of Life Sciences — Editor, Writer
Helped launch this magazine startup whose founding credo was that, after IT, the revolution in life sciences and biogenetic technologies would create the next era of economic growth and human advance.
•
Wrote and edited stories (inclding long cover features) analyzing trends in biodefense, de novo DNA synthesis, regenerative medicine, pharmaceutical development, and general healthcare.
•
1996 – 2002
Red Herring — Editor, Writer
Covered dotcom-era emerging technologies,early-stage companies, healthcare, computing, the energy industry and e-commerce from a VC standpoint.
•
Interviewed top business and tech thinkers, such as Peter Drucker, the original management theorist.
•
Education
1983 – 1985
King’s College, London, U.K. — MA, Science, Technology, and
Medicine in History
1979 -1982
King’s College, London, U.K. — BA, History and Science