Bahareh Azizi, a postdoctoral lecturer at Tech, could become a PBS star.

Georgia Tech biochemist Bahareh Azizi saw an advertisement for a host of a television show and applied, even though she had never been in front of a camera. Her resume and amateur video application were enough to earn her a shot as a host of the PBS pilot "Science Investigators," one of three finalists narrowed from a field of 19 proposed programs.

All three pilots aired on PBS stations in January and were available on the Internet. After weighing viewer feedback, network executives are expected to make their selection in March.

If "Science Investigators" is picked up, Azizi, PhD 05, who was raised in Kuwait and is the daughter of a former Iranian diplomat, could begin her career as a science journalist this summer.

The premise behind "Science Investigators" is that the show's four hosts are scientists themselves who can track clues in the field and conduct experiments in the lab. Azizi was the final pick for the ensemble and the only cast member without television experience.

She said teaching an 8 a.m. general chemistry class in the spring 2006 semester helped prepare her for television. "I'm so thankful to Georgia Tech for giving me the opportunity to teach. A lot of postdocs don't get that opportunity. When you teach you're in front of an audience."

If "Science Investigators" makes it onto the PBS lineup, Azizi still could maintain a career as a biochemist because work with the show would come in spurts. "This would be an ideal thing for me because I love Georgia Tech. I'd like to stay here and do some more teaching and more research," she said.

"I had no idea my degree would ever take me here, but it is my degree. They wanted people who really know science and are not celebrities," she said. "When you're interviewing someone, instinctively as a scientist your next question comes naturally. I am curious and that helps."

One of the pilots "Science Investigators" is competing against is "Wired Science." By coincidence, astronaut Sandra Magnus, PhD 96, is featured in the "Wired Science" pilot as the commander of NEEMO 11, the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations project.

Magnus and her crew spent seven days in September aboard Aquarius, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's underwater lab off the coast of Key Largo, Fla.

The underwater lab is used to train astronauts headed to the International Space Station. Magnus, who flew on the shuttle Atlantis in 2002, and her crew are slated to head to space in 2008 or '09.