Scientists who have connected their areas of study to their art form and use that work to open pathways to connection and understanding of science.
Jaye Gardiner, Ph.D.
Dr. Jaye Gardiner received her Ph.D. in Cancer Biology in 2017 from the University of Wisconsin - Madison, where she studied how HIV effectively spreads between cells and how that infection changed the cells behaviors. Now, she researches pancreatic cancer's tumor microenvironment, specifically focusing on how the non-tumor cells communicate to support the tumor at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, PA. Though her training is scientific in virology and cancer biology, she communicates her passions through art as a self-taught illustrator and comic artist. Jaye is a proud first generation American and college graduate who is also passionate about and involved in a variety of science communication efforts to increase access, exposure, and IDEA (inclusivity, diversity, equity, and accessibility) in STEM; predominantly through art, organizing spaces/platforms for diverse scientists and science communication, and teaching. Check out her comics group JKX Comics, the science communication workshop for graduate students ComSciCon, and the teaching program she teaches in TRIP Initiative.
Xin Liu
Xin Liu an artist, engineer and researcher. In her practice, Xin creates experiences and experiments to take measurements in our personal, social and technological spaces in a post-metaphysical world: between gravity and homeland, sorrow and the composition of tear, gene sequencing and astrology. Xin is the Arts Curator in the Space Exploration Initiative in MIT Media Lab, a member of the inaugural ONX studio program founded by New Museum and Onassis NY, and Silver Arts Project in the World Trade Center. She is also an artist-in-residence in SETI Institute. She is the recipient of numerous awards and residencies, including Porches Chinese Young Artist of the Year 2021, 30 under 30 Asia, and many more. She is an advisor for LACMA Art+Tech Lab and a faculty member at The Terraforming, a new research program at Strelka Institute in 2020-2021.
Xin graduated from MIT Media Lab with a master’s degree in media arts and sciences after her M.F.A from Rhode Island School of Design and B.E from Tsinghua University in Beijing.
Hideo Mabuchi, Ph.D.
Hideo Mabuchi received a B.A. in Physics from Princeton and a Ph.D. in Physics from Caltech. He served as Chair of the Department of Applied Physics at Stanford from 2010-2016. His early scientific research was focused on understanding open quantum systems, quantum measurement, and the quantum-to-classical transition. In recent years, his research group has turned towards fundamental issues of quantum engineering, such as quantum nonlinear dynamics, quantum feedback control, and quantum model reduction. In parallel with directing his group's sponsored research, Hideo has developed a deep personal interest in exploring the interfaces of modern science with traditional craft, aesthetic philosophy, and new materialism. He has been experimenting with novel teaching initiatives to help resurrect the ideals of liberal education in the modern university. His background as a scientist makes him interested in the microscopic transformations that occur when clay is fired in atmospheric kilns, and in ideas arising from the interplay of art, craft, and science.
Jill Pelto
Jill Pelto is an artist and scientist whose work focuses on communicating human-environment connections. Jill received her B.A. degrees in Studio Art and Earth Science, and M.S. from the University of Maine where she focused on studying the sensitivity of the Antarctic Ice Sheet to changes in our Earth-Climate system. She has conducted research on the mountain glaciers of Washington and British Columbia, in the Dry Valleys and Transantarctic Mountains of Antarctica, over the rolling hills and carved cirques of the Falkland Islands, and around the aqua lakes and ochre mountains of New Zealand. By incorporating scientific research and data into watercolor paintings, she weaves visual narratives that reveal the benefits and costs of human impacts on this planet. Jill designed a flexible data-art activity for K-12 students that is used all over the country. Her work has been featured on the cover of TIME Magazine.
Derrick Z. Jackson
Derrick Z. Jackson is a photographer and UCS Fellow in climate and energy and the Center for Science and Democracy. His posts for UCS and ESPN's The Undefeated won a 2018 first prize in online commentary from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. As a 2016 Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard University"s Kennedy School of Government, he published a paper on the failed national media coverage of the Flint Water Crisis. He is co-author and photographer of “Project Puffin: The Improbable Quest to Bring a Beloved Seabird Back to Egg Rock,” published by Yale University Press (2015).
Formerly of the Boston Globe and Newsday, Jackson is a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a 10-time award winner from the National Association of Black Journalists, a 2-time winner from the Education Writers Association, a commentary winner from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association and co-winner of Columbia University's Meyer Berger Award. In photography, he is a 2-time finalist in Outdoor Photographer's The American Landscape contest and a 2018 semifinalist in Nature's Best Photography Windland Smith Rice Awards.
A native of Milwaukee, Wis., and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Jackson was a Nieman Fellow in Journalism at Harvard University. He holds three honorary degrees and the UW-Milwaukee Distinguished Alumni Community Service award.
