The STEM field can present a rocky terrain at times. Not only is there great competition and so much to learn, but advancements occur often and it can be tough to keep up. In times like these, it can be helpful to look towards accomplished scientists who keep pushing forward in their efforts. Listed below are five STEM role models to familiarize yourself with and to inspire you to be the best you can. They are great inspirations to share in a classroom setting with your students!
1. Aisha Bowe
Aisha Bowe is a Black aeronautical engineer. She is also CEO of STEMBoard, a minority-owned technology company that works to solve some of the world’s most complex problems. The company, an economically disadvantaged woman-owned small business, also works to close the achievement gap by empowering minority youth through various STEM projects.
- Aisha marries her passion for science with her entrepreneurial skill-set and manages multi-million dollar defense contracts and private-sector technology clients.
- She hopes to inspire budding female scientists around the globe.
2. Gonzalo Moratorio
Gonzalo Moratorio is lauded as one of the key figures who managed to help Uruguay avoid some of the most severe consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- He is a virologist at the Pasteur and the University of the Republic.
- This is where him and his colleagues birthed a successful coronavirus testing kit and a national plan to help put it to use.
- Moratorio realized in the early days of the pandemic that testing and isolation of positive cases were crucial in this fight.
- His team quickly got to work and finalized their efficient and accurate testing kit. They were also able to secure a large network of diagnostic laboratories.
Today, roughly 30% of the testing kits used in Uruguay use Moratorio’s assay. He is definitely someone to watch in the field of STEM as we progress through this pandemic and beyond.
3. Ashanti Johnson
Ashanti Johnson is one of the United States’ first Black chemical oceanographers. She is the recipient of multiple STEM awards and is a highly sought-after public speaker. Her speech topics include diversity and inclusion, environmental science, institutional change, and women in STEM.
- She is currently the CEO and superintendent of STEAM charter school Cirrus Academy in Georgia.
- She was even declared the recipient of a U.S. Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring by former President Obama. Her work and story are featured in many science textbooks.
Today, she continues to work with non-profit organizations and K-12 schooling initiatives in addition to continuing her aquatic research and serving as a chemistry professor.
4. Kathrin Jansen
Kathrin Jansen is head of v
accine research and development at Pfizer. In recent months, Jansen was tasked with the arduous task of developing a vaccine to help alleviate the COVID-19 crisis. Her team was successful in accomplishing that feat in a mere 210 days. She managed over 600 employees, largely on Zoom,to smooth out manufacturing logistics, trials, and regulatory efforts from April to December.
The vaccine was the first to be approved based on phase-III trial data. The coronavirus vaccine isn’t the only feat in her portfolio, Jansen was also influential in the work that yielded the world’s first HPV vaccine, which saved millions of lives.
- She improved upon the pneumococcal vaccine to create Prevnar13, the world’s top-selling vaccine.
- She also has experience working on smallpox and anthrax vaccines.
It is easy to say that she is a modern-day STEM superhero!
5. Verena Mohaupt
Verena Mohaupt is the polar patroller in charge of logistics for the year-long Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC)—history’s largest arctic research expedition.
- In 2019, an icebreaker floated towards a massive ice floe in the Siberian Arctic and froze. It prompted 300 scientists to move with the ice to gather valuable data on climate change.
- The data will help researchers better understand the effects of warming in this area and beyond in the coming decades.
- During worsening conditions, Mohaupt devised a training course to learn how to manage hazards in the Arctic.
Without her protection of the research team, scientists may not have been able to harness the necessary data, causing the whole mission to depreciate in value.
These incredible figures span the scientific research field—from aeronautical engineering to climate change, from virology to oceanography. Although these scientists have incredible accomplishments in their arsenal, they aren’t done yet. Keep on the lookout for their future feats and discoveries in STEM.
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Influential African American Scientists
Written by Lucy Reid
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