Heather Widmayer

Background

About Heather Widmayer

1) Science communications I'm a senior scientific editor and writing consultant for the Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa. I help academic researchers clearly communicate about their research in grant proposals and research articles. My projects encompass neuroscience, biomedical, life science, pharmaceutical, environmental science, public health, and engineering research. 2) Technical writer I’ve collaborated with engineering and software development teams to write technical specifications for aviation refueling systems, software development requirements for corporate financial management systems, and customer support documentation for software products. 3) Data analysis I’ve analyzed large genomic datasets using a bioinformatic pipeline and analyzed DNA sequence data using Geneious, UCSC Genome Browser, and other genomics tools. I’ve used R Studio, GraphPad Prism, and MATLAB for data visualization, and I’m comfortable working with Python, Perl, and JavaScript. 4) Website developer For 20+ years I provided website development, information architect, software testing, and usability testing services, both as a full-time employee and as a freelancer. 5) Program manager I co-founded a thriving Farm to School chapter with Field to Family, a non-profit organization, and the Iowa City Community School District. We served local food in school lunches, built school gardens, and taught kids about healthy eating. I wrote grant proposals to secure funding from government agencies and private foundations; led school garden workshops; developed strong community partnerships; and created an award-winning K–6 “Farmer Fair” educational program. 6) Entrepreneur My MBA prepared me to start and operate two successful small businesses: 1) HW Perspectives, LLC, a freelance website development service, and 2) fsbo-iowa.com, an online “for sale by owner” real estate listing service. 7) Unique research experiences - Working behind the scenes at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in the U.S. Herbarium: I researched the use of optical character recognition (OCR) technology to automate digitization of data labels on plant specimen sheets- Traveling to Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Trinidad to collect insects for my graduate research: I used genetics and a bioinformatic pipeline to identify biogeographical speciation patterns of a fruit fly found only in Central and South America. 8) Outside of work I enjoy visiting new places, meeting new people, biking, skating, hiking, paddling, rowing, gardening, playing the piano, and singing.