What Does a Scientist Look Like?
Imagine you are asked to draw a picture of a scientist. What would you draw? Most people would come up with a picture that looks something like Albert Einstein. According to Jacquelynne Eccles, a professor at the University of Michigan, "Young people have an image of scientists as eccentric old men with wild hair, smoking cigars, deep in thought, alone."
"Basically, they think of Einstein," Professor Eccless says. "We need to change that image and give our children a much richer, nuanced view of who scientists are, what scientists do and how they work.
That's where you come in! We'd like to help you draw a picture of a scientist that looks like... you. That looks like the millions of girls and women all around the world who are learning about and making discoveries in science, technology, engineering and math.
And don't think they're hard to find. Women are making expanding the frontiers of knowledge in just about every scientific field imaginable. We've started a list -- you can read their stories by clicking on the links below. And if you've got some links you'd like to share, click here to let us know!
The Discover Interview: Lisa Randall
One of physics' brightest stars ventures into 10 dimensions, visits other universes, explains gravity, and keeps her sense of humor. (Discover Magazine) More »
A Little Privacy, Please
Computer scientist Latanya Sweeney helps to save confidentiality with "anonymizing" programs, "deidentifiers" and other clever algorithms. (Scientific American Magazine) More »
TR35 - Young Innovators: Karen Liu
Karen Liu, now at Georgia Tech, is bringing the art of human body language to the science of computer animation. (MIT Technology Review) More »
Bacterial Bully
To stop bacteria from causing infections, Helen Blackwell of the University of Wisconsin-Madison stops them from talking to each other. (Popular Science) More »
TR35 - Young Innovators: Kristala Jones Prather
MIT's Kristala Jones Prather, an assistant professor of chemical engineering, is developing a promising strategy for synthesizing commercial molecules biologically, from start to finish. (MIT Technology Review) More »
TR35 - Young Innovators: Anna Lysanskya
Anna Lysyanskaya of Brown University has developed a practical way for people to securely log in to websites while protecting their privacy. (MIT Technology Review) More »
The Discover Interview: Jane Goodall
The woman who changed the way we think about animals reflects on what she's learned from her adoptive chimpanzee family. (Discover Magazine) More »
The Monkey Economist
Laurie Santos of Yale University has found that primates also fall prey to what were long thought to be uniquely human foibles. (Popular Science) More »
Robot Connector
Yoky Matsuoka of the University of Washington has built incredibly lifelike robots. Now she's connecting them directly to our brains. (Popular Science) More »
What Visions in the Dark of Light
Lene Vestergaard Hau made headlines by slowing light to below highway speed. Now the ringmaster of light can stop it, extinguish it and revive it-and thereby give quantum information a new look. (Scientific American) More »
TR35 - Young Innovators: Lili Yang
Using gene therapy, Caltech's Lili Yang is reprogramming the immune system to recognize and kill cancer cells. (MIT Technology Review) More »
Resources for Students
Books and websites about girls in math, science, technology, and engineering:
- Computing Educators Oral History Project aims to establish and maintain a web-based collection of artifacts that illustrate pathways followed through careers in computing education. The initial emphasis is on women computing eductors late in their careers. A major goal of the project is to provide role models that may help attract students, in particular women, to computing.
- Historian Kim Tolley writes on the history of girls in science (2003)
- 1995 collection of articles on Equity in Mathematics Education: Influences of Feminism and Culture
- What Girls Say about Their Science Education Experiences: Is Anybody Really Listening? (2004)
- Gender Equity Right from the Start: Instructional Activities for Teacher Educators in Mathematics, Science, and Technology (1997)
- Counting Girls Out: Girls and Mathematics (1998)
- The Women's Adventures in Science series on contemporary scientists (for example, Beyond Jupiter: The Story of Planetary Astronomer Heidi Hammel (2005) - a good role model!)
- Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie takes away some of the myths and also helps remind us that there has been some progress in the past century.
