About the IAPP

Rebecca Skloot is the author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Her award winning science writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine; O, The Oprah Magazine; Discover and many other publications. She specializes in narrative science writing and has explored a wide range of topics, including goldfish surgery, tissue ownership rights, race and medicine, food politics, and packs of wild dogs in Manhattan. She has worked as a correspondent for WNYC’s Radiolab and PBS’s Nova ScienceNOW. She and her father, Floyd Skloot, co-edited The Best American Science Writing 2011.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks has been translated into more than 25 languages. It is currently being made into an HBO movie starring Oprah Winfrey as Deborah Lacks, Rose Byrne as Rebecca Skloot and Renee Elise Goldsberry as Henrietta Lacks. Skloot is the founder and president of The Henrietta Lacks Foundation, which has been featured in the New York Times. She has a B.S. in biological sciences and an MFA in creative nonfiction. She financed her degrees by working in emergency rooms, neurology labs, veterinary morgues and martini bars. She has taught creative writing and science journalism at the University of Memphis, the University of Pittsburgh, and New York University. She currently gives talks on subjects ranging from bioethics to book proposals at conferences and universities nationwide.

Skloot lives in Chicago, where she is currently working on a new book about humans, animals, science, and ethics, a topic near and dear to her. Before becoming a science writer, Skloot spent more than a decade working as a veterinary technician in settings ranging from animal shelters to private practices, veterinary schools and research labs. Those experiences, and the questions they prompted, are at the center of her next book. Skloot is also an avid knitter, a family tradition passed on from her mother, Betsy McCarthy, a professional knitter whose story was featured on Your Life Calling With Jane Pauley.Rebecca Skloot is the author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Her award winning science writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine; O, The Oprah Magazine; Discover and many other publications. She specializes in narrative science writing and has explored a wide range of topics, including goldfish surgery, tissue ownership rights, race and medicine, food politics, and packs of wild dogs in Manhattan. She has worked as a correspondent for WNYC’s Radiolab and PBS’s Nova ScienceNOW. She and her father, Floyd Skloot, co-edited The Best American Science Writing 2011.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks has been translated into more than 25 languages. It is currently being made into an HBO movie starring Oprah Winfrey as Deborah Lacks, Rose Byrne as Rebecca Skloot and Renee Elise Goldsberry as Henrietta Lacks. Skloot is the founder and president of The Henrietta Lacks Foundation, which has been featured in the New York Times. She has a B.S. in biological sciences and an MFA in creative nonfiction. She financed her degrees by working in emergency rooms, neurology labs, veterinary morgues and martini bars. She has taught creative writing and science journalism at the University of Memphis, the University of Pittsburgh, and New York University. She currently gives talks on subjects ranging from bioethics to book proposals at conferences and universities nationwide.

Skloot lives in Chicago, where she is currently working on a new book about humans, animals, science, and ethics, a topic near and dear to her. Before becoming a science writer, Skloot spent more than a decade working as a veterinary technician in settings ranging from animal shelters to private practices, veterinary schools and research labs. Those experiences, and the questions they prompted, are at the center of her next book. Skloot is also an avid knitter, a family tradition passed on from her mother, Betsy McCarthy, a professional knitter whose story was featured on Your Life Calling With Jane Pauley.