Simone Ulmer studied Geology and Palaeontology in Freiburg/Breisgau, Germany. After finishing her studies, she worked at the Hessian Regional Authority for Soil Research in Wiesbaden. There she led a project to create an electronic directory of geological objects worth protecting and edited a special edition about geological databases. Between 2002 and 2007 she was freelance scientific editor for Neue Zürcher Zeitung, focusing on earth and environmental sciences. Ulmer joined ETH Zurich’s Editorial Office at the end of 2007.