What Does a Scientist Look Like?

One of my favourite things about doing school visits, is just that by showing up I demonstrate that scientists don't all fit the usual stereotype. I try to always say "I am an astronomer." "An astronomer is a scientist" and "I am a scientist" (or some mixture) during my presentation.

So I was interested in the below resources on a similar theme which have both appeared in my Twitter stream this week.

To start with something I've seen before, but always fun. Images of scientists drawn by American 7th graders (12 and 13 year olds) before and after a visit to Fermilab. They also include written description of what they think a scientist is before and after. It's great.

Who's the Scientist

This one by Amy is my favourite:

Images of scientists before and after a visit to Fermilab. 


And then there is this fantastic idea to bring such images to the internet - an image stream of (self submitted) images of scientists.

This is What a Scientist Looks Like

I want to support this new idea by submitting an image of myself, so I've been thinking about what to submit and come up with the below options. Opinions in the comments below (or on Twitter) will be listened to! ;)

1. That's me observing at Magellan in Chile.

2. Pregnant on a beach.

3. Visiting Arecibo Radio Telescope when my daughter was 10 months old. 

4. Pregnant and dressed up at the UK Women of the Future 2010 Awards (I came second in the science and technology category). David Cameron gave a speech and made me stand up for ages with all the other nominees (before he was Prime Minister).

5. Bit of a theme: here I am massively pregnant again! 


6. Two children! Also I like reading apparently...


7. Geeking it out with Darth Vader (who was very scary) and Luke Skywalker at Intech! 

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