NEW MEMBER PROFILE // Gary Boas Explores The Cutting Edge of Science and Technology

Gary Boas at the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas.

Freelancer writer, editor and web content developer Gary Boas has been working remotely for years, but now you'll find him in our new top-of-the-line coworking space. "While the home office thing has its advantages, it has glaring disadvantages as well," he says. "Namely, it's totally isolating."

In the past Boas has longed to break from that isolation, but that's difficult to do when you work independently:

"I've toyed with setting up a water cooler in my house and inviting people in off the street to chat about who won American Idol or whatever," he says. "In the end I decided joining something like 3rd Ward was a much better idea."

Boas works primarily in the sciences. "I'm an editor with a trade journal devoted to the biomedical applications of optics, for example, and the webmaster with a biomedical imaging center at Mass General Hospital in Boston," he explains.

He recently wrapped up work on a feature article about the "far-flung future" of optics technology, which he says "is probably at least slightly more interesting than it sounds. I'm looking at technologies currently being developed for military (laser weapons), automotive (self-driving cars) and organic LED (designer lighting) applications." He's also participating in National Novel Writing Month. "I'm not writing a novel, per se, but rather what I lovingly call 'my memoirs'—a collection of stories from a year I spent hobo-ing around the US, with occasional incursions into Mexico and Ireland."

On top of being able to interact with others during his work day, Boas was also attracted to our coworking space by the range of people and ideas. "I like 3rd Ward specifically for the mix of people and the variety of activities you'll find here," he says.

Want to check out some of Boas' work? Try "Photonics in Space: Optics-based instruments will help crack the mysteries of the cosmos," an amazing cover story for Photonics Spectra, or this entertain article about past ideas of what the future would look like.

-- John Ruscher