Scientist finds second act as a playwright and novelist

Monica Byrne's science background is now the foundation of her fictional endeavors. The Durham, North Carolina woman who once aspired to become an astronaut is now a playwright and novelist.

Monica Byrne has degrees from prestigious institutions earned while stoking a lifelong ambition to pursue a career as a scientist.

From age 14, Byrne wanted to be an astronaut and she directed all of her energies to that end. To the amazement of her family of academics and artists, she delved into the sciences.

And she excelled. Byrne’s biochemistry degree from Wellesley College was followed by a master’s degree in geochemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Despite her accomplishments in science, Byrne no longer works as a scientist. The Durham, North Carolina woman is a novelist and playwright. How did that happen? One of her plays gives a little bit of insight. “Nightwork” is a dark comedy and a semi-autobiographical piece on the late-night happenings in a research lab.

“Nightwork” has wrapped up a sold-out run at Manbites Dog Theater in Durham and Byrne has applied to have the play performed at theaters throughout the country. She is now on a monthlong fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center to continue work on a novel. It’s light years away from being an astronaut. When asked why she left what looked like a promising career in research, she offers a succinct response:

“Science screwed me over.”

Byrne has years of experience toiling in research labs and the scars — emotional, if not physcial — to prove it. Graduate school was a rough experience made more trying by an unsupportive adviser. She soldiered on and finished her thesis, but her desire to be a scientist had faded. Yet, graduate school yielded Byrne one more discovery: She found that the fire that once burned for science and research was replaced by something else.

“I thought in terms of metaphor and imagery, and not in terms of data,” she said. “I just had a burning desire to write.”

Turns out, Byrne’s countless hours of lab work were not wasted time. They figured into “Nightwork,” which captures the experiences of graduate students working in a prestigious Boston research lab late on a Sunday night and the mice that are unwitting participants in the night’s activities. Not all of Byrne’s work is autobiographical. She has had four short stories published and she is working on a novel about a girl who was abandoned by her mother. The two women spend the course of the book searching for each other.

Byrne insists that while she no longer conducts scientific research, she has not left science behind. She describes her fiction as fantasy, with elements of science fiction. If she does any research these days, it’s to ensure that her fictional work stands on a solid scientific foundation. Too many writers, she says, write about science without really understanding it.

Byrne still works in a lab, but it’s strictly a 9-to-5 gig to pay the bills. During the day she can be found doing lab work for Catalent Pharma Solutions. She says it’s low-key, routine work rather than heavy-duty research, and explains that she wanted work that places no demands on her creative energy. So when she’s not in the lab, she writes.

“I realized I would be a horrible astronaut because I’m really protective of my time and space — an astronaut has none of that,” she said. “Now that I’m an artist, I can’t imagine doing anything else.”

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