Science can feel isolating when you don’t see yourself reflected around you. This episode brings together two stories about the search for representation, connection, and belonging in STEM.

Part 1: Graduate student Angelique Allen doesn’t fully understand the strong connection she feels to the 2015 animated film Home.

Part 2: Growing up in segregated 1950s Baltimore, Ken Phillips learns early who society says he can’t be.

Angelique Allen is a graduate student at the University of Oregon, the founder of Dreams of a Scientist, and an aspiring dirtbag. She spends most of her time thinking about science, with a focus on researching octopus brains and creating art that helps integrate science into society. She spends the rest of her time sleeping in the back of her car, climbing rocks, and doing anything she possibly can to see a sea slug (including but not limited to SCUBA diving, snorkeling, and tidepooling). To follow along her scientific journey (and see what her elderly cat is up to) check her out on instagram @angeliques.outthere.

Ken Phillips has served as Curator of Aerospace Science at the California Science Center in Los Angeles since 1990 and is responsible for shaping its exhibits and programs in aeronautics and space exploration. In 1991, he began planning a display of a flown space shuttle orbiter that culminated in NASA awarding the Space Shuttle Endeavour to the California Science Center two decades later. He is now working toward the opening of the 200,000 square-foot Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center for which groundbreaking occurred in June 2022. Ken has taught numerous courses in astrophysics, planetary geology, and space exploration to primary and secondary school students, and is an adjunct professor of the practice of physics and astronomy at the University of Southern California (USC) where he teaches the freshman seminar entitled “The Space Shuttle and our Place in the Universe.” Through the USC Prison Education Program, he also teaches introductory astronomy to students in correctional facilities. He received his bachelor’s in physics from North Carolina A&T State University, a master’s in general engineering from the University of Wisconsin, and a doctorate in environmental engineering from The Johns Hopkins University. Ken loves model trains, swimming, and bull dogs!

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Like Me: Stories about finding representation in STEM