Dr. Ben Barres

Ben Barres (1954-2017) was a neurobiologist at Stanford University who studied vertebrate nervous systems. His research primarily focused on the role of glial cells. These cells make up 90% of the brain, while neurons comprise only 10%. The scientific community considered glia to lack function until Barres uncovered their ability to control synapse formation among several other functions that contributed to modern neurology.  Barres was noted for his unwavering passion for scientific research. He began medical school to become a doctor, but became so captivated by neurology that he decided to pursue research instead. His curiosity and inquisitive mind guided his decisions, and he fostered an open and inquisitive culture in his lab at Stanford. In 1997, Barres came out as transgender, and became very outspoken about the misogyny he experienced in the STEM fields pre-transition. One example of his feminist advocacy includes “Does gender matter?,” an article published in Nature debunking widespread misogynistic ideas in scientific spaces. Barres was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2016, and passed away the following year. At the end of his life, he recounted his experiences and concluded that he lived a life of “zero regrets.”

Dr. Rebecca Oppenheimer

Dr. Rebecca Oppenheimer is a transgender astrophysicist who currently serves as the Chair for the Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of National History. With a Physics B.A. from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in Astronomy from the California University of Technology, she studies exoplanetary systems comparable to that of our Solar System. With this, she utilizes an advanced exoplanet imaging system called Project 1640, which partners with AMNH, Cambridge, NASA, JPL, and Caltech. This project later became known as the first research effort to conduct a reconnaissance of all known planets in an extrasolar planetary system. She has 98 published journal articles, with a total of 182 peer-reviewed publications.