Juli Berwald '89
Name: Juli Berwald '89
Home: Austin, TX
Birth: Rochester, MN, but I grew up in St. Louis, MO
Education: Amherst (BA: Math); University of Southern California (Ph.D. Ocean Science)
Why Amherst?
My English teacher, whose son had gone to Amherst, suggested I take a look when I was visiting other schools in the East. We stopped by and I remember thinking that I really felt at home there. Coming from the Mid-west where large schools are more common choices, it seemed really small. My public high school was larger. In the end, I chose Amherst because of all the schools I visited, it was the place where I could picture myself most easily.
Most memorable or most influential class at Amherst?
After returning from a study abroad program in Israel during which I had taken a revelatory marine ecology course, I decided I wanted to study biomechanics of marine organisms. I pitched the idea of a year-long independent study project on coral biomechanics to Professor Paul Ewald in the biology department, and he agreed to oversee it.
I discovered an unused flow tank in the geology building, which had been Pratt gym before that. During its days as a gym, the basketball floor retracted, opening up to a swimming pool beneath so the same bleachers could be used for watching basketball or water polo. The flow tank was in the emptied-out pool under the old gym floor. You really couldn’t stand up until you made it to the deep end.
The experiment was sort of ill-conceived but it was the first time I really felt like I was doing science. I was grateful to Amherst--first, for being old and keeping old equipment around and second, for supporting that kind of unconventional academic enthusiasm.
Most memorable or most influential professor?
What I want to say here is kind of difficult. The most memorable thing that happened to me because of a professor was not positive. I was a math major and the truth is the math department wasn’t a particularly warm place for women in the 80s. There were just 2 or 3 math majors who were women my year. I don’t remember having a female professor for any of my math classes at Amherst. When I failed my comprehensive test the first time, a professor suggested that maybe I shouldn’t be a math major because women struggled to pass their exams. That comment enraged me. But it also drove me to work really hard, so that when I took them the second time, I passed easily. Looking at the math faculty today, I see that while there is still not parity, women are much more well-represented. At a reunion, I spoke to President Biddy Martin about the math department today, and she told me that women majors are as well-represented as men. I find that encouraging.
Research Interests?
Marine science, of course! My Ph.D. was in satellite imagery of the ocean. I worked on how much light phytoplankton absorb and reflect back to satellites. The goal was to map photosynthesis to see if the carbon dioxide removed by phytoplankton could offset the added carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels. It was climate change research before climate change research was controversial.
In the last seven years or so, I’ve been chasing the story of jellyfish and how their abundances may be changing in response to the changes in the ocean resulting from human activity. Things like ocean warming, ocean acidification, coastal development, overfishing, and pollution are shifting ecosystems in ways that allow jellyfish to proliferate. Except, jellyfish have been systematically understudied, so understanding what’s going on is really complicated. That said, trying to understand the problem taught me that jellyfish are incredible creatures, with astonishing biological features that make writing about them an unparalleled joy.
Awards and Prizes?
Actually, none.
Favorite Book?
Really? Just one? Honestly, I can’t say. I love narrative non-fiction like The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald, Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery, and Lab Girl by Hope Jahren. But I’m also a huge fan of science-y fiction like anything by Andrea Barrett (who teaches at Williams – check out the story “The Island” in Archangel for a great jellyfish scene), Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert, State of Wonder by Anne Patchett, Tale for a Time Being by Ruth Ozeki, and an old favorite, Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.
Favorite Author?
Again, can’t do it, but see above.
Tips for aspiring writers?
The value of a writing group for me has been enormous. I meet with a group of five writers once every week or two and we read and comment on each other’s work. Through that experience, I really developed and then gained the confidence in my own writing voice.
The most important piece of advice about writing a book I ever received came from my Amherst roommate and brilliant author Margie Stohl who told me that if you really want to write a book, tell yourself that you are going to write the worst book you possibly can. Then, sit down in your chair and write!
Tell us a bit about your path to becoming an author?
The first essay I ever wrote at Amherst was stilted and awful and the professor rightly scribbled in red all over it. Rather than go see the writing counsellor, I learned to avoid writing. Such a bad decision! There’s so much writing talent at Amherst that I was foolish to step away from it out of shame. I went on to get my PhD in Ocean Science, never writing very much.
When I stepped off the academic path, I became a textbook writer. And that was terrific training for learning to write about science in very clear ways in very small spaces. However, state standards are less than inspiring as prompts, so it did nothing for my intonation or for teaching me how to write from my heart. After about half a dozen years of writing textbooks I started writing a bit of popular science for magazines. I really loved the flexibility and creativity in those articles and I started reading other magazine science writers very carefully, noting tricks and transitions and learning about voice.
Spineless took me seven years, and for much of the time I never knew if anyone would ever publish a book about jellyfish, especially one that included memoir. But I really wanted to write a book not just for scientists because the story I wanted to tell about the health of our planet is not just for scientists, but for everyone. I tried for years to get an agent, but it wasn’t until I got an offer to buy the book from an academic press that I found one. After that, the sale to Riverhead (my dream press) went very quickly. And now, it’s out in the world where I’m hearing every day that many scientists and non-scientists are reading and enjoying it.
Learn more about Spineless on Juli's website.