Dr. Valda Vinson started her career in publishing when she joined the Science staff in 1999. Since then, she has handled research papers in the areas of structural biology, biochemistry, and biophysics as an associate, senior editor, and deputy editor. She has also edited Perspectives and served as a team leader. As editor, Dr. Vinson oversees research content in the areas of biological, life, and social sciences, working with these editors to attract and select exciting research papers and reviews, while maintaining high editorial standards.

She earned a masters of science in Chemistry from Durban University in 1987 and a PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 1992. Her postdoctoral studies were also undertaken at Johns Hopkins University, where she focused on structural and biochemical studies of cytoskeletal proteins. Before joining Science, she spent two years as a senior lecturer at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa.