Today, Monday November 18th, marks the fifth year of celebrating LGBTQ+ STEM Day. With the first two years being celebrated in July, this holiday moved to November 18th as an internationally recognized day to highlight and celebrate the work of LGBTQIA+ people in STEM.
Madeline Eppley (they/them), a 4th-year PhD candidate in Marine and Environmental Science, and Johan Bonilla Castro (they/them), an assistant professor in physics, took time to discuss their work, motivations and experiences as LGBTQIA+ scientists. Through our conversation, they shared valuable insights into their fields, the challenges they’ve faced, and the importance of community in fostering success.
This article has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Please give us a little background about yourself (Name, pronouns, major, hometown)
Madeline: Hello! My name is Madeline (they/them) and I’m a 4th year PhD candidate in Marine and Environmental Science. I’m originally from Carlisle, PA.
Johan: Johan Sebastian Bonilla Castro (they/them). I’m an assistant professor in physics. I grew up in Hialeah, Florida, in a Spanish-speaking home that was as Costa Rican as it could get, and I was the first in my family to pursue higher education.
Are you currently working on any research or would you like to speak on recent research or co-op experiences?
Madeline: I am a member of the Lotterhos Lab based at the Marine Science Center in Nahant. For my PhD, I am studying the evolution of wild eastern oyster populations over space and time. To do this, I’m using population genomics approaches, environmental data, disease data, and historic museum DNA.
Johan: I work in experimental high energy physics with the CMS experiment at CERN (near Geneva, Switzerland). My specific work is with the Cathode Strip Chamber muon detector system, and searching for new, heavy particles with the aid of Machine Learning.
What inspired you to go into your field of study?
Johan: What inspired me to study were my parents, who work physically demanding jobs (to this day), and encouraged me to build a better future. What calls me to physics is its fundamental treatment of nature. Nature is perhaps where I can connect back with my family, and to me physics is our best, most honest, attempt to understand what/who/where we are.
Who is one of your inspirations within the LGBTQIA+ STEM community?
Madeline: I feel very lucky to have some incredible queer scientists in my field to look up to! Dr. Remy Gatins at Northeastern, Dr. Morgan Kelly at LSU, and Dr. Jenn Coughlan at Yale have been fantastic mentors and role models to me. Beyond that, they’re amazing evolutionary biologists who the field has learned a lot from! I believe that effective mentorship is one of the most impactful ways to promote success of marginalized groups in STEM.
Johan: Role models are tough. I identify as Latinx, non-binary/trans, among many other intersecting identities. I don’t have any living role models. However sad it seems, I only really have folks who have passed to look up to some like Alan Turing were unforgivably treated by society and governments as worse than criminals, whereas other like Sally Ride were only able to share their truths until after their deaths. I hope others have more positive takeaways on this.
Any piece(s) of advice for rising LGBTQIA+ Scientists?
Madeline: My advice is to find a community of people who share your identities and support you! Finding friends in queer, early career researchers in my field has helped me feel confident in myself and grow as a scientist.
If you’re not LGBTQIA+ but want to have a positive impact on making queer scientists, feel like they belong, consider following queer scientists on social media and engaging with their content! You can also spend some time learning about queer scientists and acknowledging the anti-queer history that much of science has been built on.
Johan: Advice to rising LGBTQIA+ scientists be yourself, and help the next person get there too. Community goes a long way in any STEM or non-STEM field. I work with thousands of scientists from all around the world, and what makes or breaks a project is how teams can work together to achieve a common goal. In my experience, the culture of many of our research environments are not nurturing or even accepting of LGBTQIA+ identities. That is a reality, in as much a reality as our identities. In the face of obstacles, we must find a way through, and the only way is together. You are worth it; the world should be better. And while we wait for the world to get there, we have to show them how.
