Hello, my name is Kwasi Wrensford and welcome to Dark Matter! I'm an ecologist, naturalist, social justice advocate, and lapsed musician who's currently a PhD Candidate in Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. Dark Matter is a project I'm excited to get off the ground, and I'm hoping in the coming years Lloyd, Reggie, and I can create a space for black folks in STEM across the country and the world to lift each other's voices and build community.
Like Lloyd and Reggie, I grew up in the deep-south in the town of Albany, Georgia. My parents immigrated to the States from St. Kitts and the British Virgin Islands in the late 90's to work as chemistry professors at Albany State University, a small but storied Historically Black College/University. They were both the first in their families to finish college, completing their PhD's at the prestigious Brown University. To them, anything was possible through education and hard work, and from as early as I can remember, my sister and I were immersed in those values. In my parent's household, as is often the case in immigrant households, nothing short of your best effort was acceptable. My parents always pushed me to be my best self, but for a time I chafed under the weight of their expectations. High school was a frustrating time that eventually gave way to college at the University of Connecticut. While I loved my time at UConn (go huskies), it was a time of my life spent in myriad predominantly white spaces. I found friends and community, friends I love and value deeply, but it would take me a long time to recognize the exhaustion that came from navigating those white spaces alone. I'm a person who turns inward under pressure, and I missed out on opportunities to connect with other black folks in college who may have felt my struggle. With a little bit of time and perspective, I'm now gonna do my best to be that person for somebody else, even if it's only digitally. So the science: I'm a behavioral ecologist, someone who is interested in animal behavior in an evolutionary and ecological context. In other words, why do animals do what they do, what about their environments causes them to do those things, and how do those things interact with the environment and change over time? From atmospheric climate change, to urbanization, to the rapid spread of non-native species, animals of all types are faced with immense pressures to their survival, often times faster than populations can adapt through evolution. So what tools do animals have to cope with these pressures in the short term, and how will those coping strategies affect them in the long term? These questions are fundamental to our understanding of biology, but they are also critical to our own understanding of the human impact on the world and each other. I believe good science integrates across intersections of disciplines and of cultures. Science may probe at the edges of human knowledge to make sense of the abstract, but science also has the profound ability to influence and steer society in very tangible ways, for better or for worse. Science, in turn, is a reflection of society, and can recapitulate the worst aspects of ourselves. As a scientist, particularly a black male scientist in America, I take the social responsibility of my role very seriously. Making biology, and science as a whole, as inclusive and welcoming a space as possible is a top priority in my work, and as I continue in my career, I hope to be a source of inspiration and support for my community. So you've learned a little about me, but two questions remain; Why are we here? What is Dark Matter? Well in a lot of ways, we're still figuring that out. Along with Reggie and Lloyd, I'll be writing about all things science, culture, and life, through the lens of the black experience. The idea for something like Dark Matter had been kicking in my head for a long time, but if I could thank any one thing for its genesis, it would have to be Lloyd's wedding in 2019. Lloyd married Akilah in a beautiful ceremony in Albany, and Reggie and I served as groomsmen. Having the chance to share in their happiness was a profound and inspiring moment, a moment of black love, black family, and black community. That inspiration spurred me to pitch my idea for the blog to Reggie and then Lloyd a few days later. A few months later and here we are! We all found our own paths to careers in STEM, paths that took us in different yet parallel directions, and across the country. We hope that other black folks navigating the world of STEM, whether it be academia, industry, policy, or their intersections, can see a bit of themselves in our experiences, and know that there are folks who look like them itching to build community. So thanks for reading, and I look forward to sharing more writing in the coming months! - Kwasi
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Welcome to Dark Matter! So, first I’d like to say thank you for checking out our blog. This is my first blog post ever, so I apologize in advance if it’s a rough read. I hope to accomplish three things: introduce myself, let you know why I personally want to do this, and what types of writings you can expect. Once you finish reading this post I would appreciate it if you could read the posts from my fellow authors, Kwasi and Reggie. And if you like what you read then hopefully, you’ll be reading the next blog post we make. And if you don’t, well, as I said before, thanks for checking us out. Just that much is appreciated.
Alright, so my name is Lloyd Fisher, Jr. I’m a materials chemist, on and off bass player, watch anime (sub and dub), and play video games (Play Hollow Knight and thank me later). Like my fellow authors, I am an African-American man from Albany, GA, a small town in southwest Georgia. I grew up with a love of science and always wanted to be a scientist when I became an adult. It took a lot of sleepless nights and a lot of hard work but thankfully I can say I’ve achieved that goal, and I’m currently enrolled in graduate school for my chemistry PhD. During my journey to this point one thing always stuck out to me; the lack of diversity in chemistry. In all of my chemistry courses I was the only black student that was a chemistry major and I can currently count on one hand the number of African-American Chemistry PhD students I know. And that’s the main reason I’m interested in starting this blog with my friends. I want to use this platform as a way to provide advice to any black person that’s interested in going for a career in science. See, I figure that a major contributor to the lack of black people in chemistry is that we just don’t see ourselves already represented there. Just take a moment and think about how many black people, let alone black scientists, you saw on Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, or the Science Channel while growing up. I personally can only think of two that were consistently the host of a program, and one of them is better known for playing God than being a scientist. In a nutshell, I want to make the way easier for those that come after me. I hope to show up-and-coming black scientists that we do exist. And to show those that were always curious about science but never saw it as a viable option that there are ways to make that dream a reality. And that leads us to what kind of writings you can expect. I want to highlight the obstacles I’ve faced in my career and how I overcame them. If one person finds some type of comfort from reading my posts then I’ll have done what I’ve set out to do. While I’ll mainly be focused on science related topics for the bulk of my writings, I’ll also be discussing topics related to African-American culture and just general things I’ve observed. Welp, that’s pretty much it. Thanks again for taking the time to read this and I’ll see you on the next one. Peace family, Lloyd |
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