Mary McLean grew up in Oxon Hill, Maryland, a suburb of Washington DC. She studied biochemistry and English at the Pennsylvania State University, where she won a Katey Lehman Award for short fiction. She then got a PhD in biochemistry from Trinity College Cambridge, and following several postdocs around London now works as an MRI physicist at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute. She also currently serves as Chair of the Cambridge Chapter of Democrats Abroad: https://www.democratsabroad.org/
Mary started writing poetry (mostly humorous) in 2011, and it has so far appeared in Mezzo Cammin, New Verse News, The Oldie, Light, and Lighten Up Online. She has also been shortlisted in contests such as the 2014 Thomas Gray Anniversary Competition and the 2012 Wergle Flomp humour verse competition. Mary blogs at https://profanepoet.wordpress.com, where further information and links to her online publications can be found.