Art & Science

Before coming to grad school, I was a high school teacher. During that time, I found that many students grew up viewing science as a sterile, rigid, and rule-dominated practice, which is inherently unappealing. I decked out my classroom in colorful illustrations of animals, plants, fungi, and organelles. Over the school year, students would mention that they liked seeing science represented more colorfully. By bridging art with science concepts and systems, we remind each other and non-scientists alike that the nature of science is an inherently creative endeavor.

As a member of the Kellogg Biological Station Seminar Committee I create bi-weekly chalkboard art to advertise our weekly seminar speaker

MSU's ecology, evolution, and behavior program hosts an annual art-in-science competition, where students create art pieces to represent and communicate their research. For the 2024 competition, I created the piece pictured left using photos of hatchling turtle shells I captured while rearing these animals in the laboratory. Painted turtles derive their name from the bright orange, red, and black coloring on their shells, yet the function of this coloration is a mystery. This piece represents the striking diversity in pattern across individuals born to a population in the same year.

A sticker design contest is held across the Kellogg Biological Station community to commemorate the end of the multiple student research programs that run during the summer at KBS. My sticker design was chosen and produced in Summer 24. This sticker design represents the diversity in research areas and focal species investigated by our students, faculty, and staff.

As part of the 2025 SICB annual meeting, I designed and was selected as a finalist winner for the SPDAC sticker design contest. These stickers were printed and distributed at the annual meeting. For this design, I chose to focus on the vast array of focal taxa and species that members of the SICB community have researched.