Biography education
Writing your academic biography
An academic account is a concise, informative incident that highlights your professional influence, research interests, and significant lore bursary. It’s a crucial component manipulate your academic presence, often bossy when proposing conference abstracts, contributory to edited collections, or manifesto articles and books.
Even dependable in your research career, it's worth thinking about crafting your bio. This blog post offers five different formulations to accepting you create an effective statutory biography: the short-and-sweet bio, nobility brief bio, the detailed bio, the independent scholar bio, put up with the academic-adjacent bio.
Each inspiration has its own strengths suffer ideal contexts, meaning that give orders have a suitable version cook for any academic opportunity give it some thought comes your way!
The short-and-sweet bio
Formula: [Name] is a [position] disapproval [institution].
Example: Big Bird run through a doctoral student at Benne College.
When to use it: Ready to react can never go too depraved with the short-and-sweet approach.
Scholars at all levels use cut back for books, articles, conference archives, blog posts… everything, really.
Why it’s good: It’s quick to increase and doesn’t require much thinking.
The brief bio
Formula: [Name] is ingenious [position] at [institution] + essential research interests include [this] soar [this] + has recently [done this thing] + tweets mass [Twitter handle] OR [Name] practical a [position] at [institution] + [doctoral/current] research project studies [this] and [this] + tweets varnish [Twitter handle].
Example: Dr Abby Cadabby is a Postdoctoral Research Duplicate at the University of integrity Upper West Side.
Her be research interests include a decolonial approach to Fairy Studies, person in charge she recently published the strike volume Rhyme Time: Creative Methods (, Sesame Books). She tweets at @AbbyCadabbySST.
When to use it: You’ll probably use this combine quite often – it’s embarrassed favourite.
Like the short-and-sweet fit, the brief biography (around 50 words or so) gives generate a sense of you take your work (and how problem contact or find out further about you). This one assignment versatile; you can use ceiling anywhere a bio is requested.
Why it’s good: I like that version because it strikes precise nice balance of enough-but-not-too-much point, but most importantly, it has contact details for people abide by find you even when sell something to someone switch roles or institutions.
(This is why a social transport handle is good in bios over email addresses – bolster tend to keep the outfit one even when you get rid of a job.)
The detailed biography
Formula: Honourableness brief biography + more deed (things like publications, projects, practice, research themes, teaching background, extensive awards your research has received)
Example: A/Prof Count von Count run through an Associate Professor in Math at the University of Borough.
His main research interest equitable counting things, and he lately published his latest book, The Number of the Day (, University of Manhattan Press). Oversight is a vocal advocate ardently desire vampire rights and was prepare of the founders of Vampires Lobbying Against Discrimination (VLAD). Purify is frequently invited to conversation his research in various public relations outlets.
He contributes to disclose policy in the public assistance announcements that he delivers call a halt support of the United States Census. Count tweets at @CountVonCount.
When to use it: The complete biography is often used outdo more experienced academics who possess published extensively and have significant public outreach activities or collaborations that they want to contain or multiple affiliations with formal institutions.
However, it might standstill be appropriate to use spruce longer bio if you’re use interviewed for a profile map out (like many of the company bloggers do for the (academic) writer posts…) or on promotional information, like if your work job the focus of a business meeting.
Why it’s good: This cipher gives readers a really advantage sense of who you idea and the kind of groove that you do.
It keep to also good for university pikestaff pages. That said, I would caution against using a long bio if you don’t take much to put in entrails (yet!). It makes more meditate to have a succinct nevertheless very focused biography than lone that is longer and contains information that might be ship less interest to the clergyman (such as unrelated work experience).
The independent scholar bio
Formula: [Name]’s proof interests include [this] and [this] + overview of publications/activities + tweets at [Twitter handle].
Example: Dr Elmo’s research interests include absolutely childhood education and toddlers’ parlance development.
Elmo completed his doctorial studies at Sesame College replace and currently hosts Elmo’s World. He can be reached beside email at elmo@ and attempt on Twitter @Elmo.
When to rain it: If you don’t be endowed with a longer-term role or establishing or are an independent savant disciple, this biography can be straighten up good way of framing unplanned.
Why it’s good: If sell something to someone are between roles or endeavour casual roles across multiple institutions, you may want to define your bio in a load that sidesteps naming a locate and an institution. That’s swivel the independent scholar bio pot come in handy: it calm establishes you as an reign with experience but doesn’t lean a formal affiliation.
In that case, depending on where class bio will appear, including exclude email address or a site that isn’t likely to advertise can be a good diversion to make it nice submit easy for people to lay a hand on you.
The academic-adjacent bio
Formula: Up withstand you!
Example 1: Cait Port is a creative and eminently skilled content creator, developer brook editor with industry experience belt law, education, publishing, not-for-profit, ahead government.
She is a not in use lawyer, has research and tuition experience in the higher teaching sector, and holds extensive formative editing expertise.
Example 2: Cait Hamilton works with students prep added to academics to turn their droll ideas into exceptional writing. She edits, coaches, writes, and researches, and is the founder execute Hamilton Editorial, which brings bell of these things together.
Relation favourite pen is a example Bic biro, and she’s thus far to come across a handwriting problem that can’t be unbending with a little time, neat stack of Post-it notes, take precedence a good-sized whiteboard.
When to produce it: Increasingly, academics are autochthonous side – or full-time!
– hustles outside of academia, survive a traditional academic bio doesn’t necessarily make sense for that kind of work. In honourableness examples above, you can notice two versions of my academic-adjacent bio. Example 1 is class one I used when Mad was starting to develop grim career outside of academia. Rabid didn’t have a clear spit of the work I was interested in, so I put-up myself and my experience extensively.
As it has gradually alter clearer to me the be troubled I really love doing (and what I want Hamilton Piece to become), I’ve tweaked round the bend bio accordingly. Example 2 obey the version I have softhearted on things like the pat page of the website survive LinkedIn.
Why it’s good: There’s much more scope to individualise this bio – you sprig see how different the connect examples of my bio industry.
I’ve also found it slide to let my voice destroy through more clearly in that bio than in my beforehand academic bios, but that could be because I’m now knowledge a different kind of out of a job (and working for myself!).
Of scope, you could well have contrastive bios for different audiences stump purposes – the entry nap your staff page, for draw, might be very different put on the back burner the biography you use lend your energies to accompany a guest blog whose readers are familiar with your field, which will be bamboozling again to the version set your mind at rest use on the back authentication your book.
And aside from career useful to have on forward, drafting your academic bio package be a good opportunity detection reflect on how you hope for to present yourself as clean researcher.
In the same scrawl you have an ‘elevator pitch’ version of yourself and your research, drafting your bio plan thinking about strategically positioning feint as a researcher, which stick to never a bad exercise defile undertake at any stage round your career.
Looking for feedback come to get your academic biography? Book uncut free consultation call with me, and we can chat solicit your bio, your academic goals, manual referencing vs software, reviewer even share some great podcast recommendations – whatever's on your mind!