Alysa
They/Them
I am queer and nonbinary and I am a polymer scientist, naturalist, and citizen science evangelist.//
I lead a bit of a double life! My academic background is in Chemical and Biomedical Engineering. In undergrad (UW Seattle), I focused on nanotechnology and polymers, and in graduate school (UT Austin), I researched tissue engineering scaffolds. I currently work in R&D at an advanced materials company as a polymer scientist. I spend the rest of my time crawling through bushes all over Texas looking for bugs (and trying not to get chiggers). I’m a Texas Master Naturalist, and serve as the Director of Outreach and Education for my chapter–I coordinate programming that brings hands-on activities to engage the public with topics relating to nature and the environment in our area. I’m a huge advocate for the citizen science website iNaturalist.org (check it out!), as it’s a major factor our ability to detect the presence of invasive species before they have a chance to inflict devastating damage, it’s also just like real-life Pokemon. I also painstakingly document the life cycles of moths and butterflies in my blog. In addition to being queer, I am also disabled (multiple physical and mental disabilities), and STEM is very under-represented by both demographics!
Instagram @nanofishology