Blog Post

Space Needs Us

Space Needs Us

This week on #MeetAScientist, get to know Sophia Porter, a recent graduate of Johns Hopkins University in Physics and Applied Mathematics. She’s a former Brooke Owens Fellow, a program founded in honor of the space industry pioneer and pilot Brooke Owens to promote women in aerospace. During her fellowship, she helped to launch the Ask a Brookie program to connect fellows to K-college level students with questions ranging from space and aviation to career development opportunities. We’re thrilled to introduce you all to Sophia!

Creating New Perspectives

Creating New Perspectives

This week on #MeetAScientist, get to know Dr. Ruth Schmidt, a microbial ecologist, postdoctoral fellow at Université du Québec, and member of the 500 Women Scientists Leadership Board. She chats about her experiences working in Egypt during Arab Spring, communicating science through art, and working on 500WS's partnership efforts. For more from her, follow Ruth on Twitter @RuthLSchmidt!

Failure is okay

Failure is okay

This week on #MeetAScientist, get to know Dr. Lexi Moore Crisp, a biologist and 500 Women Scientists leadership team member. Many of you may know Lexi as one of the international pod coordinators, working to connect our network of pods around the globe. She's also co-founder of the Philly pod and is working to transform how we think about mentorship within our community. In this interview, she chats about everything from badger burrowing to the need to feel comfortable with failure.

Understanding our responsibility

Understanding our responsibility

This week on #MeetAScientist, learn about University of Washington Chemical Engineering professor Lilo Pozzo. Lilo's research group explores properties of nanomaterials with applications spanning from photovoltaic cells to protein engineering. Born in Argentina and raised in Puerto Rico, Dr. Pozzo recently spent time in Puerto Rico with her research group helping restore power to the island using microgrids and solar arrays.

Uncertainty as a Starting Place

Uncertainty as a Starting Place

This week on #MeetAScientist, get to know science communicator Laurel Allen, one of the co-organizers of the 500 Queer Scientists campaign! She chats about her path to science communication, the success of 500QS, which is now in its second week and has been featured in outlets like Mother Jones, and what we can all do to maximize their impact. 

Coming Out of the Shadows

Coming Out of the Shadows

Happy Pride Month! This week on #MeetAScientist, get to know Dr. Lauren Esposito, an arachnologist, educator, and co-founder of the campaign 500 Queer Scientists, which launched today! 500QS is a new visibility campaign for LGBTQ+ people and their allies working in STEMM and STEMM-supporting jobs. In this interview, Lauren chats about her work and the need raise awareness around issues facing LGBTQ+ members of the scientific community. You can follow 500QS and amplify their work on Twitter @500QueerSci and Instagram @500QueerScientists!

Climbing higher into science

Climbing higher into science

This week on #MeetAScientist, get to know rock climber and neuroscientist Melise Edwards. In addition to being a Research Associate at the Allen Institute for Brain Science, she uses her Instagram platform (@meliseymo) to share her climbing adventures, while discussing issues of inclusion, sexism, and racism in the climbing community. Here, she chats about how her passions for science and climbing intersect and how both the scientific and climbing communities can do better when it comes to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Meet the Creator of #DisabledandSTEM

Meet the Creator of #DisabledandSTEM

This week on #MeetAScientist, get to know Jesse Shanahan, a graduate student in astrophysics, an accessibility coordinator, and a science communicator. She created the hashtag #disabledandSTEM and has recently joined the leadership team of 500 Women Scientists to make sure we're honoring our mission to make science inclusive and accessible. We're thrilled to have her on board and excited to share some of her work with you all!

Fitting into the Bigger Picture

Fitting into the Bigger Picture

This week on #MeetAScientist get to know biologist and science diplomat Dr. Clarissa Rios Rojas. With over a decade of biomedical research under her belt, Clarissa has shifted gears, focusing her attention on professional development of Latin American students and young professionals, so they can in turn contribute to the social and economic development of their home countries. Clarissa talks more about founding the nonprofit Ekpa’palek and how she plans on using her scientific training to better the world.

Building a sustainable ecosystem for inclusion and access

Building a sustainable ecosystem for inclusion and access

This week on Meet a Scientist, we meet Dr. Pragnya Eranki, a Chemical Engineer with expertise in sustainable technologies. She currently works at the Colorado School of Mines as research faculty in civil and environmental engineering, as well as developing a Diversity, Inclusion, and Access Council. Learn about Pragnya's work on sustainability and DI&A issues — and her passion for reading and dancing!