Topography series, detail

I am a scientist, writer, and artist.

My writing — on algorithmic art, a forgotten female scientific illustrator, and the mechanisms of mass extinctions — has appeared in Scientific American, Kenyon Review, and Rain Taxi.

Currently, I’m a Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University in the Xiong and Didychuk laboratories studying viruses using cryogenic electron microscopes.

I earned my Ph.D. in Chemistry from Columbia University investigating the mechanism through which the fundamental biological processes of transcription and translation are coupled in bacteria. Previously, I earned my B.A. in Chemistry and Studio Art from Kenyon College. My artwork explores landscape, mapping, and memory.

Writing

Core Samples. Rain Taxi Review of Books. (forthcoming)

Watershed: Attending to body and earth in distress. Rain Taxi Review of Books. 2023

From apocalypse to apocalypso: On An Ecotopian Lexicon. Kenyon Review. 2021

On The Ends of the World by Peter Brannen. Kenyon Review. 2020

An uncanny display: Algorithmic art at the Whitney. Scientific American. 2018

A pioneering female scientific illustrator, rediscovered. Scientific American. 2018

Is it art or is it science? Scientific American. 2017

Science ︎ ︎
Visualizing the translation landscape in human cells at high resolution. bioRxiv. 2024. W. Zheng, Y. Zhang, J. Wang, S. Wang, P. Chai, E. J. Bailey, W. Guo, S. Devarkar, S. Wu, J. Lin, K. Zhang, J. Liu, I. Lomakin, Y. Xiong.

NusG-mediated coupling of transcription and translation enhances gene expression by suppressing RNA polymerase backtracking. Journal of Molecular Biology. 2022. E. J. Bailey, M. E. Gottesman, R. L. Gonzalez.

The mechanism of NusG-mediated transcription-translation coupling and the role of RacR in transcription regulation in Escherichia coli. Doctoral Dissertation, Columbia University. 2019. E. J. Bailey

Art
Archipelago, group exhibition. Organization for Human Brain Mapping. Montreal, QC. 2023

Making Art in the Age of Algorithms, symposium lightning talk. Center for Science and Society, Columbia University. New York, NY. 2018

Smart Dust, group exhibition, SLA307. New York, NY. 2017

Young Emerging Artist Award, Alegre Fiber Art Retreat. Grand Junction, CO. 2017

Scopa Stills #1 & #2, permanent display. Lakeside Apartments, Princeton, NJ. 2014

Topography, exhibition. Gund Gallery. Gambier, OH. 2012

Ex Mattatoio, site-specific group exhibition, Rome, IT. 2010

Selected Awards
American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellow. 2025-2027

National Institutes of Health (NIH) Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Fellow. (awarded; declined in order to accept ACS fellowship) 2024

FASEB Virus Structure and Assembly Conference, Poster Award. 2024

Beyond the Ivory Tower, Writing Workshop. 2022

Kenyon Review Developmental Editing Fellowship for Emerging Writers, Nonfiction Finalist. 2021

National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellow. 2015-2019

Barry M. Goldwater Scholar. 2010-2012

Elizabeth J. Bailey