‘We Are Here’
SCIENTIST-ARTIST PORTRAYS WOMEN OF COLOR IN STEM
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s she lists her proudest achievement, Semarhy Quiñones-Soto doesn’t mention her Ph.D. in microbiology or her published coloring book depicting diverse women in science, tech, engineering and math. She doesn’t even cite her job as a biological sciences lecturer at Sacramento State. Instead, she returns to when she was a teenager and her mother allowed her into a lab at the University of Puerto Rico and let the youngster
JL By Jessica Laskey Open Studio
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clean the autoclave—an expensive sterilization machine. “My mother wouldn’t allow anyone to touch that autoclave, but she taught me how to clean it at 15,” Quiñones-Soto says. “I’m very proud of that particular achievement.” There’s no doubt that spending time in her parents’ labs as a child influenced Quiñones-Soto’s career path. But she notes her brother grew up in the same home and pursued a creative career. Quiñones-Soto has bridged the two: She’s a respected bacterial geneticist who earned her doctorate studying the origin of mutations under stressful conditions, and she’s an artist who uses digital illustrations to celebrate women of color in STEM. Her self-published coloring book, “Types of Scientists: A Coloring Book for All Ages,” has sold more than 1,100 copies on Amazon. “I made the book with the intention to increase visibility of women of color as STEM professionals,” says Quiñones-Soto, whose book
