Media Release
May 31, 2023
Media Contact: Hansook Oh
ehoh@mednet.ucla.edu
#FaceOfScience shows what a scientist looks like
Los Angeles, CA, May 31, 2023 — A scientist can look like anyone and everyone. That is the message scientists across the nation sent when they joined the third annual #FaceOfScience social media campaign on April 26.
The campaign is organized by the Diversity Program Consortium (DPC), an initiative funded by the National Institutes of Health that aims to engage and support a more diverse field of individuals in biomedical research careers.
Participation in #FaceOfScience has doubled each year, reaching a new record of 12 million potential social media impressions during the 2023 campaign.
Students, faculty, researchers and individuals from scientific organizations posted photos of themselves holding signs with #FaceOfScience and shared why they love being a scientist.
Karina Ruiz Rivera is a trainee in the NIH-funded RISE Enhancing Biomedical Achievements in Science and Engineering (RISE-E-BASE) program at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez who participated in the campaign with her program.
“I love being capable of producing knowledge that gives minorities a voice, provoking a space where science can be made for all," she shared on Twitter.
Karina Ruiz Rivera, a student from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez.
The Deaf Hub at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
The Deaf Hub, which was established at Rochester Institute of Technology in 2022 to promote representation of deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals in health care and biomedical science careers, is one of the many groups that posted on April 26.
“At the Deaf Hub, we love to see our students entering the healthcare and biomedical science workforce. #FaceOfScience is important so we can see more DHH representation in this field!” the group posted on Twitter.
Treva Brown, PhD, a chemist who works at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory’s Ocean Sciences Division at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi joined #FaceOfScience for the first time this year.
She wrote on Instagram that she loves science because it continuously opens her mind to “the wonders of all things surrounding us.”
“Moreover, having the opportunity to trail blaze paths in science has allowed me to #BeTheChange I wish to see in STEM fields by cultivating my passion to continuously strive changing the narrative and faces of STEM,” Brown wrote.
Treva Brown, PhD, a chemist who works at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Mississippi.
Hansook Oh, who helped coordinate the campaign as the co-director of communications for the DPC Coordination and Evaluation Center (CEC) at UCLA, said the success of the campaign indicates how important it is to uplift and support scientists, especially those from historically underrepresented groups.
“#FaceOfScience is clearly resonating with the scientific community,” Oh said.
“This campaign began with a question—whose face do you see when you imagine what a scientist looks like? We want to expand the image of a scientist to include those who were previously excluded and inspire a new face of science in the public imagination.”
The campaign is part of the CEC’s Enhance Science, a visual media project that showcases inclusive excellence in science, technology, engineering, math and medicine (STEMM).
For more information about #FaceOfScience or Enhance Science, visit www.enhancescience.org.
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The Diversity Program Consortium Coordination and Evaluation Center at UCLA is supported by Office of the Director of the National Institutes of Health / National Institutes of General Medical Sciences under award number U54GM119024.
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