Geology, anthropology guided alumna toward science career

UGA goes Beyond the Arch to feature alumna Beth Shapiro (BS ’99, MS ’99), MacArthur Fellow, author, and chief science officer of the “de-extinction” startup Colossal Biosciences, where she works the front lines of possibility and ethics in utilizing gene editing to re-introduce an extinct wolf species:

For her part, Shapiro addressed these questions in her 2015 book How to Clone a Mammoth, a sort of how-to manual that also considers the opportunities and pitfalls of such an endeavor. 

But there is another pressing question: How did Shapiro find herself as one of the leading voices for the once fantastical idea of resurrecting extinct species?

Shapiro’s journey began as a freshman at the University of Georgia, bent on studying broadcast journalism, of all things. The Honors student, living in the nine-story Oglethorpe House, even got a job as the news director of the local Magic 102 radio station.

It wasn’t nearly as glamorous as she had hoped.

“Let me tell you: Having to get up at 4 o’clock in the morning and go and write the news and be on the morning news show is not compatible with living in a dorm,” she says.