Erin Macdonald is a tattooed one-woman career panel for an astrophysics degree and currently lives in Los Angeles working as a technical consultant for the Star Trek franchise. She received her PhD at 25 from the University of Glasgow in Scotland doing research with the LIGO Collaboration on general relativity and gravitational waves. After research she moved into public education at museums and colleges before consulting for the federal government (Department of Defense and, what is now, the US Space Force). As a product of "The Scully Effect" Erin then followed her passion into writing and entertainment consulting where she could tell the types of stories that can inspire future generations. She is a recurring writer for the popular YouTube channel Extra Credits, and wrote and narrated the Audible Original The Science of Sci-Fi. Currently living in Los Angeles she works as the science consultant (non-exclusive) for the Star Trek franchise on all five current shows (since 2019).