About
Sandra Gutierrez is the former Associate DIY editor at Popular Science. She makes a living by turning those “Wait, I can make that!” moments she has while browsing the internet into fully-fledged stories—and she loves that. A native from Santiago de Chile who will never get used to the Northeastern cold, Sandra moved to Brooklyn three years ago, where she paints, draws, drinks green tea, and lives with her 11-year-old beagle Lucas.
Experience
Sandra joined the PopSci team in mid-2019, as the Assistant DIY editor, after moving to New York City to pursue her master’s degree. Before that, she spent three years working as an in-house member of Google’s PR team in Chile. This gave her granular knowledge and a front-row seat to tech development and the industry at large. At the dawn of her career, she wrote and edited features for the Chilean edition of Rolling Stone magazine.
During her time at PopSci, she has excelled at finding the science in hobbies she’s nurtured for years, like knitting and printing. Inspired by her mom and her love for making household products, Sandra is also PopSci’s in-house expert in all things cleaning and has written multiple guides on the subject, ranging from DIY laundry detergent to getting coffee stains out of mugs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she’s also helped people navigate key aspects of the “new normal,” like wearing masks and traveling.
She’s also a correspondent in New York City for CNN and newspaper La Tercera in Chile, and has been a guest on PopSci’s Ask Us Anything and Techathlon podcasts.
Education
Sandra graduated from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile with a bachelor’s degree in Social Communication and Journalism. She was an editor, producer, and host at her alma mater’s radio station, Radio UC, for three years. In 2019, she earned her Master of Arts degree in Science Reporting at Columbia University’s School of Journalism.
Highlights
- Versatile writer and editor determined to plug pop culture references into everything she touches, ever bewildered by the science of everyday things.
- Proud inhabitant of the often neglected but now more important than ever intersection between thorough science reporting and service journalism.
- Past bylines at Rolling Stone and Chilean newspaper, La Tercera, and live appearances for CNN Chile.
Favorite weird science fact
The pig heart that was recently transplanted into a human being had to soak in a solution that, among other things, contained a non-negligible amount of cocaine, which required the DEA to get involved.
