Angelina Souren

Angelina Souren writes mostly non-fiction. She has also published some quirky flash fiction and poetry. Some of this is reminiscent of the style of Donald Barthelme and Spike Milligan and of Zen koans.

She now uses almost exclusively English, but initially wrote in Dutch. This started with helping shape her primary school's first newspaper, followed by a letter published in a national radio and TV magazine about a televised play by G.B. Shaw in her teens.

In her twenties, she progressed to items in the women's magazines "Viva" and "Libelle" and about a dozen letters to the editor published in the Saturday edition of Dutch national newspaper "De Volkskrant". This was when everything was still print-only.

She quit her job in her mid-twenties to go back to school. She was working in tourism and hospitality in Amsterdam at the time, where she dealt with people from very diverse backgrounds, speaking several other languages besides Dutch and English.

While wrapping up her MSc in geology, she took two evening courses at the Netherlands School for Journalism.

After completing her MSc with distinction and an additional diploma for chemical oceanography research, she moved to Florida where she worked on a PhD in marine biogeochemistry. She also became acquainted with wild-bird rescue and rehabilitation there. She adopted two non-releasable quaker parrots from the wild-bird hospital where she volunteered and ended up emigrating with them twice.

She's been based in the UK since 2004. She initially kept working on her PhD at the University of Southampton, but then decided to leave the science labs behind her. Instead, she continued to work in her own business, which she had started in Amsterdam after her return from the US.

She wrote for the magazine "Elements" published by the international consultancy firm Arcadis and also briefly for consultancy firm Tebodin, within the context of her business. She also wrote for the Environmental Chemistry (and Toxicology) Section of the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society as editor-in-chief of its newsletter and website.

She was associate editor for the newsletter of the US-based Geochemical Society for about a decade.

She adapted and/or translated a large number of materials such as scientific patents and (popular) science books, including Dutch publications in the "For Dummies" series (biology, astronomy, genetics, forensics, weather and chemistry, for Pearson Education), but also for example teaching texts, technical manuals, art catalogues and a novel or two. One of those novels is Richard Bintanja's "The Ultimate Brainchild" ("Gedachtenrijk"). It's a little Gattaca-like.

In addition, Angelina has edited numerous scientific publications and grant proposals, in areas like membrane science, climate research, water management and engineering, and environmental science.

Angelina's main background is in the earth and life sciences, but nowadays, she often calls herself a bioethics explorer. She has been dabbling in that field for over a decade.

It's important to point out that bioethics is much broader than clinical ethics or medical ethics. In a nutshell, bioethics is about diversity, equality and justice.

So bioethics includes speciesism, ableism, povertyism, otherization, inclusivity and various other societal issues. The phenomenon of stalking can also be related to it, for example as a result of the lack of acceptance of and support for neurodivergent people.

Other than her high intelligence and amazingly versatile nature, Angelina is pretty middle-of-the-road and neurotypical. She is a feminist, which simply means that she doesn't consider women flawed specimens of the species Homo sapiens.

In addition to serving as a board member for the Environmental Chemistry (and Toxicology) Section of the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society (KNCV), she was a member of the board and several committees of a foundation for women in science and technology in the Netherlands and a member of Portsmouth City Council's Portsmouth Environmental Forum.

The current profile photo shows the Mayor of Portsmouth handing Angelina her certificate for "Taking the Lead" (Community Leadership).