A Glimpse at the LGBTQ Community Contribution to the STEM Fields by Valerie Etienne- Leveille
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A glimpse at the LGBTQ community contribution to the STEM fields by Valerie Etienne- Leveille The acronym STEM identifies career disciplines associated with Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics fields. Research has shown that LGBTQ individuals are more likely to report limited STEM career opportunities than their non-LGBTQ peers and the research shows that many LGBTQ STEM professionals leave the STEM disciplines due to harassment and devaluation of their professional expertise by their colleagues (1). The active recruitment and development of underrepresented individuals in STEM-related fields will provide society increased access to innovative ideas and creative solutions to challenging problems that will benefit the world (2). In this article two contemporary science contributors are showcased: Nergis Mavalvala and Ben Barres. Nergis Mavalvala Nergis was born in Lahore, Pakistan in 1968 (3). She was born to a Parsi family and was raised in Karachi City, Pakistan where she received her early education at the Convent of Jesus and Mary school (4). She moved in her teenage years to the United States, and she attended Wellesley College in Massachusetts where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Physics and Astronomy in 1990. As an undergraduate student, she co- authored a paper with her Physics professor and mentor in the Physical Review B: Condensed Matter publication (5). Nergis earned her Ph. D in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1997. She pursued post-doctoral research at the California Institute of Technology before joining the Physics faculty at MIT in 2002 (6). In addition to publishing more than 120 scientific papers, Nergis is well-known for her research on the detection of gravitational waves in the cosmos (7). Picture of Nergis Mavalvala – Courtesy of the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (5). Gravitational waves in the cosmos are very difficult to detect because they get very weak before reaching Earth (8). She is a leading member of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) team who announced in 2016, the first direct detection of gravitational waves from colliding black holes. This breakthrough is so significant because the detection of these waves validates one of the last unconfirmed Albert Einstein’s predictions (7)(8). Nergis Mavalvala is a self-identified queer Pakistani- American astrophysicist and mother of two children who attributes her success to supportive parents and great mentors throughout her education journey from her early years (chemistry teacher in Pakistan) to college studies (Science professors) (5). Ben Barres Ben Barres was born in 1954 and grew up in New Jersey (9) (10). He wanted to become a scientist at a very early age and decided to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He earned his medical degree at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and completed his neurology residency at Cornell University. Ben Barres believed that science was about identifying big questions and he found it more exciting to work on the untouched mysteries. He became interested in the glial cells because many diseases that impair the brain and the nervous-system functions involve those cells but very little was known VALERIE ETIENNE-LEVEILLE 1 about them at the time (9). With his focused interest in research, he left the medical field to pursue a doctorate in neurobiology at Harvard Medical School. Upon completion of his doctoral program, Ben started his own laboratory in the Neurobiology Department at Stanford University School of Medicine in 1993. He chose this department because of its focus on high quality teaching and mentoring of graduate students (11). Ben mentored many graduate and post-doctoral students throughout his career and insisted that they tackled scientific problems and voice their views (9). Picture of Ben Barres – Courtesy of Stanford School of Medicine (9). Ben Barres was born with the original name of Barbara Barres, but he never felt comfortable as a girl. He transitioned genders in 1997 and began to live as a man. Suddenly, Ben noticed that fellow researchers were addressing him more collegially as a man (10). As a transgender male, Ben realized that his experiences living as a woman and now a man provided him with a deeper understanding of how the two genders are treated differently (11). He shared that people who were not aware that he was a transgender male treated him with much more respect as a male scientist than when he was a female scientist. As a result, he became a strong advocate for equal treatment in science and fought for more science opportunities for underrepresented groups such as LGBTQ individuals, women, and other minorities. Ben Barres was the first transgender scientist elected to the National Academy of Science in 2013 (12). He passed away in December 2017 from advanced pancreatic cancer, but he never stopped mentoring his students until his death. These two scientists are excellent examples of the continued importance of critically evaluating and addressing biases in STEM career opportunities and hiring practices to increase, foster, and nurture the participation of underrepresented groups. References 1. Cech, E. A. and Waidzunas, T. J. (2021, January 15). Systemic inequalities for LGBTQ professionals in STEM. Science Advances Vol.7, no. 3. https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/3/eabe0933 2. Page, S. E. (2017). The Diversity Bonus: How Great Teams Pay Off in the Knowledge Economy. Princeton University Press. 3. Wikipedia.org. (2021, June 2). Nergis Mavalvala. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nergis_Mavalvala#Personal_life 4. Dawn.com. (2016, February 13). Nergis Mavalvala: The Karachiite who went on to detect Einstein’s gravitational waves. https://www.dawn.com/news/1239270 5. Venkatraman, V. (2012, June 1). Gravitational wave researcher succeeds by being herself. Sciencemag.org. https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2012/06/gravitational-wave-researcher-succeeds-being-herself 6. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (n.d.). Nergis Mavalvala PhD ’97. https://physics.mit.edu/faculty/nergis-mavalvala/ 7. Amherst College. (n.d.). Doctor of Science- Nergis Mavalvala. https://www.amherst.edu/news/specialevents/commencement/awards/2019-honorees/nergis-mavalvala 8. Gaur, P. (2020, June 30). Professor Nergis Mavalvala. Ysjournal.com. https://ysjournal.com/professor-nergis-mavalvala/ 9. Huberman, A. (2018, January 2). Ben Barres (1954-2017). Nature.com. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-017-08964-1 VALERIE ETIENNE-LEVEILLE 2 10. Svodoba, E. (2018, November 14). Ben Barres: A transgender scientist shares his story. Spectrum news. https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/ben-barres-transgender-scientist-shares-story/ 11. Allen, N. and Daneman, R. (2018, February 5). In Memoriam: Ben Barres. Journal of Cell Biology 217(2): 435-438. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5800821/ 12. Pell, H. (2019). Ben Barres: Neurobiology Pioneer and Champion for Equity in STEM. American Institute of Physics. https://www.aip.org/sites/default/files/Ben%20Barres_LGBTQLesson%20Plan_Final_0.pdf VALERIE ETIENNE-LEVEILLE 3 .