Three PhD students have launched a website that aims to promote science in the style of the popular Humans of New York page.

When asked about science, many people imagine someone in a white lab coat shaking a presumably dangerous colourful liquid in a flask or someone writing increasingly difficult equations on a whiteboard all day long. A new website called Humans of Science is trying to break down these stereotypes by interviewing world-leading scientists and researchers to show they are just as human as anyone else. One of the founders said about their motivation: "We got the sense that young people think science is not relevant and not cool anymore".

The idea of the site was formed six month ago when three postgraduate students from the Department of Chemical Engineering - Chiara Heide, Clemens Patzschke and Parth Shah - realised that they all had a common passion: promoting science to people outside the scientific world in new and innovative ways. They formed a non-profit organisation and soon started their website www.humans-of-science.org, with their first interview being Imperial’s Emeritus Professor Geoffrey Hewitt. He was followed by another highly renowed chemical engineer: Professor Robert Langer from MIT. Following interviews include: Professor Frank Behrendt, Professor Man Mohan Sharma and Professor Joanna D. Haigh. 

According to the editors, the project has had its ups and downs: contacting world-leading academics is difficult because they don’t always have the time to reply to all their emails. That is why they were somewhat taken aback when Professor Robert Langer agreed to be interviewed via Skype as their second interviewee. Parth said: "It’s really nice to have people like Bob Langer giving their support, because it puts the word out there and makes more people engage with us and our mission." The authors are in the process of contacting more academics from different fields to interview, from all around the world.

As for the future, Chiara said that "It would be nice to have some events to make the site more active in terms of conducting interactive dialogues with society". Their dream is to develop it into a social enterprise which could offer mentoring opportunities and events to popularise science among young people and showing how science really makes the world a better place to live in.

Clemens, Chiara and Parth

Humans of Humans of Science

Chiara Heide, founder

“I want to promote science by working at the interface of science, communications, business and policy. I really enjoy research and the independent way of working it develops. University offers a very stimulating environment. Science is crucial for our development, and for the world. I think what is really missing is an effective means to show people how important science is, and trying to get more people involved. It’s all about education and starts at a very young age. Education and communication are the two parts where I would really like to work in.”

Clemens Patzschke, editor

“I studied in Germany, worked for two years in industry and then did a Masters here and continued with my PhD. I would like to stay in academia or work in industry R&D for a clean energy company, trying to find carbon-neutral and more sustainable ways to cater to the increasing electricity demand across the globe.”

Parth Shah, editor

“I just want to stay in science, whether it’s in research or in industry. Having been on either sides, I have realised I enjoy both. Being a researcher if you were in industry allows you to do more work with the end in mind and focus on shorter term goals. If you are in academia, a lot of it is about possibilities and ideas. You need to have a good balance between both. I cannot see myself doing anything else”

[Article written by Dora Olah an Undergraduate student in the Department of Chemical Engineering.]