STEM Role Models

This past Tuesday, over 3,500 students, in grades 6-12, traveled to the Washington D.C. Convention Center to engage in presentations and hands-on workshops from some of the most creative and inspiring minds in STEM at the 2nd X-STEM Symposium. Sponsored by MedImmune, the X-STEM Symposium featured over 30 speaker presentations from advanced luminaries in STEM fields such as Dean Kamen, Inventor and Founder of FIRST; Dr. Aprille Ericsson from NASA; Dr. Irwin Jacobs, Founder of Qualcomm to young up and coming innovators like 13 year old Alyssa Carson, AKA the NASA Blueberry and 19 year old…

George Washington Carver – Botanist, Inventor and Educator One of the most phenomenal scientists of the early 20th Century. He found amazing uses for the peanut, sweet potato and soy bean that continue to enrich our lives. And against racial obstacles, his achievements paved the way for generations of young African American scientists The ultimate agricultural botanist and chemist, George Washington Carver, from his early years, was known for his curiosity and his "burning zeal to know everything", especially about nature. He soon became fascinated with how to use botany and other sciences…

Gerty Theresa Cori -- Biochemist Often considered one of the greatest women scientists of the 20th century. The first American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine; known for her discovery (with husband Carl Cori and physiologist Bernardo Houssay) of how the body metabolizes glucose Born Gerty Theresa Radnitz in 1896 in Prague (then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now the Czech Republic), Gerty grew up at a time when women were marginalized in science and allowed few educational opportunities. However, at age sixteen and influenced by her uncle, (who was a professor of…

Nikola Tesla -- Electrical and Mechanical Engineer, Inventor One of science's most amazing visionaries of all time, Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla was considered a mathematical phenomenon since childhood, being able as a high school student to perform integral calculus in his head, which initially prompted his teachers to believe that he was cheating! This famous engineer and inventor was known for developing  the alternating-current (AC) electrical system widely used today and the discovery of the rotating magnetic field.  Tesla also proved  that the Earth can be used as an…

Plant Biologist Eloy Rodriguez came from humble beginnings and now is a leading authority on ethnobotanical medicine. Eloy Rodriguez is an expert of  ethnobotanical medicine (the benefits of natural plants to healing and disease prevention). He coined the concept and study of zoopharmacognosy, the process by which non-human animals(such as apes) self-medicate by selecting and using plants to treat and prevent disease. Cited in books and passed down for centuries, plants have been used for ages by many ethnic cultures to treat infections, cancer, diabetes, malaria and other illnesses. "In…