Name: Tyler Hobbs Which came first in your life, the science or the art? For me, art and science co-evolved in different stages. Growing up, I was always creating artwork, and I wanted to study that, but Computer Science ended up being a much more pragmatic thing to study during college. My love for artwork never subsided, though, and after working as a programmer for a short while, I renewed my focus on it. By…

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Name: Okunola Jeyifous Which came first in your life, the science or the art? Probably both, though I was more cognizant of “art” as a formal concept earlier. My mother was a photographer in her younger life, and a big visual arts enthusiast, so we had a lot of art in our house growing up. She gave my brother and me visual arts books from different genres/spheres at an early age, and even then, I…

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Dr. Eleanor Johnson is a UK-based science teacher and chemist. Coupled with bold, colourful illustrations by the artist Lies Van Hee, Journeys to the Chemical Elements weaves together storytelling, shamanism, and the periodic table to explore the relationship between humans and chemistry. In this interview with Art the Science, Johnson describes how sustainable chemistry research and shamanism have jointly informed her work, collaborative efforts in the creative process, and the importance of spirituality in scientific…

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Name: Sharl G. Smith Which came first in your life, the science or the art? I have always loved both. I have clear memories of learning about the body’s biological systems in Grade 2 and also weaving a pair of slippers that went to the National Gallery of Jamaica in the same grade. When my high school art teacher suggested that I study architecture after graduation, it seemed like a good fit because I was…

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Jiyong Lee is a studio artist and educator currently residing in Carbondale, Illinois. He is a professor of art at Southern Illinois University and has been the head of the university’s glass program since 2005. A recipient of many honors and awards, Lee earned his MFA from Rochester University of Technology in New York. From 2009 till 2015, he served as a member of the board of directors for the Glass Art Society. In this…

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For nearly a decade, the Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences (CPNAS) has hosted monthly D.C. Art Science Evening Rendezvous (DASER) salons to foster conversation and collaboration between scientists, artists, and the public. “We witnessed a growing interest in conversations between practitioners in the arts and humanities and STEM professionals,” recalls CPNAS Director J.D. Talasek as he reflects on DASER’s beginnings. “But roadblocks existed, such as a lack of common language and a…

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Name: Tianyue Su Which came first in your life, the science or the art? It is difficult for me to determine which one came first. In my practice, art, technology, and science have always merged, focusing on expanding human perception. I don’t want my work to be confined to a specific field, so I always work across multiple disciplines and keep art creation within a wide range of digital media, physical installations, and bio-art. Working…

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As the coronavirus swept across the globe this spring, the Scripps Research Center for Computational Structural Biology in association with the Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics Protein Data Bank drew attention to the virus’s structure through art. They hosted a coronavirus image contest for illustrations created using CellPAINT, a software for drawing cellular and viral systems. Images could be submitted under the science category, in which drawings needed to accurately depict the coronavirus’s structure and…

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Name: Jasmine Virginia Which came first in your life, the science or the art? The science came first. I spent 10 years working at SickKids hospital in the Department of Pediatric Laboratory Medicine. I was fascinated by electron microscopy and the images of various cells and materials that some of the scientists would share with me. It sent me down a rabbit hole into research of the unseen world in which cells are living beings…

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“We come from the stars,” says artist and astronomer Dr. Annette Lee. But she doesn’t just mean the atoms that make up our physical beings, as told by astrophysicists. Lee is mixed-race Lakota and part of the Ojibwe and D/Lakota communities. In her culture, people have four components: mind, body, heart, and spirit. The spirit is pure energy, or star. “We have part of us that’s our star part, and it was alive and well…

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