Andres Orio Gonzalez
He/Him
I am queer and I am a medical physicist.//
Hello!
I’m originally from Erie, PA where I was born and raised by two Mexican immigrant parents (¡Viva La Raza!) I went to the Rochester Institute of Technology for undergrad where I majored in physics and conducted research in microfluidics, nuclear physics, and medical physics. I am a new PhD student at UCLA in the Physics and Biology in Medicine graduate program!
During my undergraduate experience, I usually walked into a room prepared that I was going to be the only queer person or person of color in the room. Noting that there wasn’t enough visible support for the queer students on campus in the core sciences, I decided to change that. I created the College of Science LGBTQ+ Inclusivity in Science Club (COSLISC), which is an advocacy group dedicated to creating inclusivity efforts for queer students in STEM. During my time as founding president, I was able to obtain a micro-grant from Campus Pride to start the group, created The QueerSci Talks (a speaker series that highlighted queer individuals in STEM), advocated for gender-neutral bathrooms, hosted the first LGBTSTEM Day at RIT, and created a scholarship for queer students in STEM. Science should be used to better the world around us and for it to help everyone, the makeup of scientists should match the real world. I hope to connect with fellow minorities in STEM and be able to help push diversity and inclusivity forward in my career.