Newsletter
Srishti Goyal
Can you walk us through your typical day?
I’m currently doing a very short postdoc at the Universitat de Barcelona, where I study resource requirements for a good life. Most of my day is spent working with large datasets, building environmental-economic models, and hoping my code behaves, while trying to stay hydrated in the Spanish summer. In the evenings, I catch up on Indian news to stay connected to home and, as one inevitably does, spiral into existential worry about the state of affairs there.
As a volunteer, what initially drew you to get involved with the MCAA Newsletter, and what keeps you motivated to stay?
I joined because during my PhD, there were days when thesis work felt impossible, but I still wanted something meaningful to do to keep myself sane. I stayed because I enjoyed learning about areas outside my field and helping communicate complex thoughts to a multidisciplinary readership.
What are your hopes or goals for the future of the Newsletter?
I hope the Newsletter becomes the go-to read for professional development, where researchers share both their achievements and failures so others can learn. Ideally, it would be like Nature, but focused on research careers and professional growth.
How has volunteering as an editor influenced your own career, interests, or view of the scientific community?
I’ve been part of the Newsletter team for a year now, and volunteering as an editor has definitely improved my ability to write clearly, which can sometimes be harder than working through research. It has broadened my understanding of science, showing me fascinating areas far beyond my own work. Just as importantly, working with such a collaborative and supportive team has made the experience even more rewarding. It is a great environment to grow while contributing to something meaningful.
Meet our Editors - Srishti Goyal: Helping to communicate complex thoughts - September 2025
What’s one behind-the-scenes moment or memory from working on the MCAA Newsletter?
One moment that stands out is spending hours fixing UK English spellings and formatting inconsistencies. It reminded me how much care goes into the final polish, even if no one notices when it is done right. At times like that, while others might have dreamed of publishing breakthroughs, I dreamt of catching stray American spellings.
If you could swap lives with any scientist, living, dead or fictional, for one day, who would it be and why?
I would love to spend a day as Herman Edward Daly to experience what it was like to calmly challenge the world’s obsession with economic growth while pioneering ecological economics. I imagine he must have had moments when convincing mainstream economists about limits to growth felt harder than balancing one of their general equilibrium models on a good day.