Zoe Covey
Features Editor
After over a year in the making, those honored by the Hidden Science Superstars Initiative were unveiled on Oct. 17, making it obvious how much care and thought went into the project. Beginning in the summer of 2017, the project was conceptualized by the recently appointed head librarian Irene Herold when she was touring Timken Science Library. Zachary Sharrow, Wooster’s Science Librarian, said, “She immediately noticed that the architecture and décor were heavily focused on traditional figures of the Western canon. We quickly worked out a plan for increasing the diversity of representation in the physical spaces of the building.”
Thus, the idea of representing more than well known white Western men in the science library took hold and began to take shape in a project that would come to be called the Hidden Science Superstars.
Herold, Sharrow and Science Library Associate Mae Evans were the main collaborators on this project, and they agreed that they wanted to get the wider campus community involved in choosing the individuals that would be honored. Evans and Sharrow drafted a proposal for the project that was viewed and positively endorsed by both the provost and the Center for Diversity and Inclusion (CDI) staff. The campus community was contacted via email and notified that they would have a hand in choosing the Hidden Science Superstars by nominating candidates that they believed to be deserving, and then voting once the 44 unique nominations were narrowed down to 12 finalists. The funding for this project was procured through the Open Grant from the state library.
The unveiling on Oct. 17 was the culmination of all this work, and featured several speakers including President Bolton, State Librarian of Ohio Beverly Cain and Associate CDI Dean Shadra Smith. The chosen Hidden Science Superstars were introduced by students Allison Secard ’19, Alayt Abraham Issak ’21 and Zoie Bills ’21, as well as recent graduate Vedica Jha ’18. They spoke about the accomplishments of the three scientists and the single mathematician that were ultimately chosen, and about why they were not recognized in their intellectual prime. After the four likenesses were revealed, Herold announced that due to the generosity of Damon Hickey, the former head librarian of the College, and his wife, who had donated to the project in honor of Donna Jacobs, Wooster’s first science librarian, two additional Hidden Science Superstars would be honored. After two brief videos explaining the significance of the new additions, Maresa Tate ’21 removed the coverings from the two busts. The original four Superstars honored were Martha Chase, a geneticist and molecular biologist, Maryam Mirzakhani, a mathematician, Ibn Sina, a philosopher and physician and Mae Jameson, a physician and NASA astronaut. The additional people honored were Rosalind Franklin, a chemist instrumental in understanding the double helix structure of DNA, and Chien-Shiung Wu, a physicist.
Sharrow said that his passion for this project comes from a desire for “the Timken Science Library to be a welcoming and inspiring space for everyone at the College, and I think this is a step toward making that happen. I also think it’s important that we have a public conversation about issues of representation and recognition for historically underrepresented groups in S.T.E.M., and part of that discussion is recognizing the rich history of contributions that members of those groups have already made.”
Herold agreed, saying, “We enhanced a lovely, well-used space to be more welcoming and inclusive. It is my sincere hope that the inclusion of images of underrepresented individuals in S.T.E.M. is inspirational to all of our students.”
But it’s not the faculty and staff at The College of Wooster who are meant to be the most inspired and supported by this initiative. Issak, who spoke at the unveiling, said that this initiative is especially important in the sciences “because it shows that science existed and still exists in every part of the world. Since ‘science’ is a term coined and greatly used by the Western world, people naturally assume science started during the Renaissance, Reformation … and if not during the Greek Philosophers. There are many other people around the world that have done great work but have not been put onto the pedestal because they have not been sought after, or used as a base for further research.”
A studio art and mathematics major, Issak said that what the initiative means to her is that “Wooster acknowledges the presence of its minorities in science. It means that we are not only here to learn but to create.”
Secard, who also spoke, noted that her knowledge of women in S.T.E.M. has encouraged her to pursue science. “My awareness of Martha Chase and her story influenced my academic decisions here at the College — though I considered myself to be more of an ecologist, seeing someone I had so much in common with succeed in the area of microbiology encouraged me to give it a try,” said Secard. “I hope the stories of the Hidden Science Superstars will continue to inspire students to persevere in the face of difficulties both academic and social.”
(Photo from Wooster.edu)