Anton Zuiker

writer, editor, organizer, leader

In the elevator

Hi, I'm Anton.

In college I studied communications, then worked as a features writer in Hawaii and as editor of an arts and culture magazine in Cleveland.Family in front of a schooner

After Peace Corps service in the South Pacific, I became an early blogger, web content strategist, and organizer of online communities.

I earned a master degree in medical journalism from UNC-Chapel Hill and worked on an AIDS-related global health project. Then I joined Duke University, where I have coordinated internal communications for the health system, lead the Department of Medicine communications activities, and now work as associate director of research communications and engagement in the Duke Clinical Research Institute.

Along my journey, I also organized an international science communications network and won awards for the Voices of Duke Health podcast.

I am married to Erin and we're parents of Anna, Malia, and Oliver.

I'm in my 25th year blogging at zuiker.com.

Now

It's March 2025. Here's what I'm doing day to day:

Why I write

For many decades, my grandfather, Francis C. Zuiker, wrote and mailed a newsletter titled The Zuiker Chronicles. His letters shared stories about beachcombing travels and camping trips, banjo playing and bird watching, and the joys of gathering with my uncles and aunts and cousins and friends for the Zuiker jamboree at Ravens Roost, the family campground in northern Wisconsin.This blog post has the history of the campsite.

My other grandfather, Louis Sisco, also sent a newsletter. His was a typewritten diary about the weather, his early-morning walks, meals with family and friends, and sundry errands in DeKalb, Illinois.He was tweeting 50 years before there was a Twitter. See this prezi.

I am a writer because my grandfathers wrote to me.

I’m also a reader of books and magazines because a childhood mostly without television gave me plenty of time to lose myself in other worlds, both true and fictional.

I am an organizer of community because my father told me about his Peace Corps service in the Dominican Republic. His stories inspired me, too, to join the Peace Corps (see My Service, below).My father's memoir is Step to Freedom - I wrote the Foreword.

Since then, I have traveled the world, studied medical journalism, encouraged new bloggers, and convened science communicators.

As a way to connect my far-flung family members and to honor my dying grandfather, in the summer of 2000 I launched a family website called Zuiker Chronicles Online, and I began to write a weblog. After a few years, I renamed my blog the Coconut Wireless and moved it to my personal site at mistersugar.com; I returned to zuiker.com in 2015.

In my version of The Zuiker Chronicles, I still write about my activities, what I observe through the day, and what I learn in conversation with others. In my 50s, I have been on a journey to look longer and listen deeper, so I hope my blog posts reflect a greater mindfulness. In February 2025, I unveiled a new brand for the site.

I contribute feature stories about interesting people and their science.

My service

In the late 1990s, I was a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in the Republic of Vanuatu in the South Pacific. I worked as a rural community development volunteer, teaching in the elementary school and helping to bring solar panels and lighting to the island. I lived in Liro Village on Paama Island with Erin (we joined Peace Corps a year after we married). We learned different styles of communication – we spoke Bislama, the lingua franca of Vanuatu and a little Paamese and also used nonverbal cues such as eyebrow flickers to say yes.From There to Here tells how I communicated on Paama and lists the stops on our around-the-world trip.

When I first introduced myself to the sixth graders of Liro Primary School, I explained that Zuiker comes from the Dutch word for sugar.For another version of my naming story, read the post Naming Rights. The students had a hard time pronouncing Zuiker (ZIE-ker), so I suggested they just call me Mr. Sugar. Later in the term, when I bought a pig — I wanted to raise the same animals the villagers did, so I had chickens, a dog, a cat and a pig — I asked the students to name him. Mistersugar was the consensus vote. Image of a pig

After traveling around the world, Erin and I returned to the U.S. in December 1999, just before the dotcom crash. But it was the right time for me to get hooked on the web. Eventually, I would use mistersugar as my domain and as my handle on various social media networks.

As an early blogger and adopter of social media, I built on my Peace Corps service to organize online communities through face-to-face activities, and I used my training in medical journalism to become a leader in science communication. To promote new-media skills and strengthen online connections, I organized BlogTogether meetups, skills-training sessions, and participant-driven conferences.David Kroll wrote a song about my efforts: “Let's get together now and see where this goes / Distill us some humanity from this firehose / Minister of the ether, I propose.”

I was co-founder of ScienceOnline and co-organizer of the ground-breaking annual gathering and global online community of scientists, science communicators, educators, and librarians. I also was a founding board member of Science Communicators of North Carolina, a professional network of writers and editors.

During my ‘decade of narrative’ to nurture storytelling and conversation, I put on Talk Story storytelling shows and The Long Table culinary events.I've focused each of my decades on a theme.

The Web has evolved into a tribal Internet of passionate bloggers like Zuiker, and he has become a sort-of local brand. He's a quiet visionary. He's a low-key doer. He's a let's-get-together-and-see-where-this-goes guy. It's the Zuikers of this new, interwoven world who may play a significant role in determining how far Web 2.0 goes from being a sociable network to a social force.

Dan Barkin, Raleigh News & Observer (Sept. 2007)

My work

My career in journalism and communications has been full of patient mentors, talented teams, and opportunities for innovation

I'm fortunate to work for a world-class academic institution, where I can be a forward-leaning leader in the results-oriented Research Communications & Engagement department supporting DCRI’s clinical studies and national networks. I manage and mentor junior colleagues, lead team development, and promote a culture of continuous quality improvement in all our communications activities.

Key positions in my employment journey:

My education

M.A. Mass Communications from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 2002-2004. I studied medical journalism and epidemiology of infectious diseases. For my thesis reporting project, I wrote a 12,000-word narrative account of acute-HIV infection in North Carolina. I organized the Narratives of HIV series of public health awareness events.

B.A. Communications from John Carroll University (University Heights, OH) 1988-1992. I served as editor-in-chief of The Carroll News, the student-run weekly newspaper.

Your floor

Let's talk again soon. Contact me: anton AT zuiker DOT com Colophon: This site uses Tufte CSS, which was an elegant way to update the page to match my previous design.