{"id":254471,"date":"2026-10-22T07:15:54","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T11:15:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=254471"},"modified":"2026-10-19T14:27:37","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T18:27:37","slug":"were-here-were-queer-were-exploring-stem-careers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2026\/10\/were-here-were-queer-were-exploring-stem-careers\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn’s Queer Science Conference Challenges Stereotypes, Inspires Students"},"content":{"rendered":"

UConn College of Engineering\u2019s <\/span>Vergnano Institute for Impact (VII)<\/span><\/a> hosted the fifth annual Queer Science Conference on October 17, 2026, with fun hands-on science activities geared towards high schoolers from across Connecticut.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Previously held in June, this year\u2019s event moved to the fall and incorporated a seasonal twist \u2013 DNA extraction from a pumpkin, led by Nicole Tillquist \u201823 Ph.D., a research scientist in the genomics lab of professor Rachel O\u2019Neill.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey could see the DNA goo, which is pretty exciting,\u201d says Tillquist.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tillquist still fondly recalls doing a similar experiment in high school, when she extracted DNA from her own cheek swab.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A
QS organizer Jillian Lewis (center, in tie-dye) helps students perform the pumpkin DNA extraction. (Courtesy of Nicole Tillquist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI took it home and I was all excited about it…I guess it makes sense why I\u2019m into DNA now,\u201d she says. \u201cHopefully these students will go home curious: <\/span>I wonder what else I could get DNA from<\/span><\/i>?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Attendees strolled beneath UConn\u2019s vibrant fall foliage to learn more about various research and career paths in STEM fields. They got a personal tour of UConn\u2019s world-class pathobiology facilities, where scientists conduct research and testing for a variety of human and animal diseases. They were introduced to the world of engineering through a Rube-Goldberg-machine-building competition. Non-squeamish students had the opportunity to conduct a dissection to learn more about neuroscience (a scalpel-free option was also available).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The cherry on top was an interactive ice cream\u2013making demo at lunchtime \u2013 using the wonders of chemistry (liquid nitrogen) to flash-freeze fresh cream. (Mooove over, Dairy Bar?)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Two
Shania Kalladanthyil (left) and Maggie Willson (right) conduct the all-important liquid nitrogen ice cream demo. (Claire Galvin\/UConn Engineering)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cLiquid nitrogen has ended up being a large part of the conference, because students really like it,\u201d says Maggie Willson, a doctoral researcher in the chemistry lab of professor J. Nathan \u201cNate\u201d Hohman. \u201cCan\u2019t blame them \u2013 it’s a lot of fun, and it\u2019s really good.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This year\u2019s conference drew 18 students from high schools across Connecticut, who were able to attend at no cost thanks to the event\u2019s sponsorship from the VII.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What exactly is \u201cqueer science\u201d? Well, it can be any science conducted by a queer researcher. (Allies are also welcome to attend QS.) The goal of the conference is to show young queer and allied people a sampling of the exciting careers in STEM fields that could be available to them. It provides an opportunity to counter the stereotypical image of a \u201cscientist\u201d as a straight, white, cisgender man \u2013 which the academy tends to consider the \u201cdefault\u201d identity \u2013 and invite students of other identities to imagine themselves joining these fields.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Planning the conference is a labor of love for the organizing team, who are all queer-identified STEM researchers at UConn.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Students
Hands-on activities introduce students to the world of research across many scientific disciplines. (Claire Galvin\/UConn Engineering)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Michael Vaccaro \u201821, \u201825 Ph.D., the event\u2019s chief organizer, has helped plan Queer Science every year since he was a doctoral student in the Department of Civil Engineering \u2013 he’s now an assistant research professor in the same department.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really nice to have the community and be able to inspire some young kids,\u201d says Vaccaro. \u201cI\u2019m happy if students can take away anything from the event \u2013 whether it\u2019s, \u2018Oh, I really like neuroscience and I want to study that when I graduate,\u2019 or \u2018Maybe I don\u2019t want to go into any of these disciplines.\u2019 Whatever they get out of it, that\u2019s what makes me happy.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A fellow long-timer on the planning committee, Tillquist adds, \u201cI keep doing it because I like seeing how excited the students get. When they show up in the morning, they\u2019re so shy, and then you can see a few of them will start to talk to each other, and then they\u2019ll start opening up. And I think us just being there, it creates a \u2018normal\u2019 environment \u2013 we are all in science, but we\u2019re all queer, and we exist and have normal lives.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A
The end result of this pumpkin carving activity wasn’t a jack-o-lantern, but a successful pumpkin DNA extraction. (Claire Galvin\/UConn Engineering)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThere’s a lot of heart in it,\u201d says Willson. \u201cAnd it has a very concrete goal. It’s not, <\/span>let’s fix the world<\/span><\/i>. It’s <\/span>let’s give these kids a fun day, so they can see other queer scientists<\/span><\/i>. It\u2019s very practical \u2013 and it\u2019s very fun.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Know a high schooler who might be interested in attending next year\u2019s Queer Science event? <\/span><\/i>Fill out the interest form here<\/span><\/i><\/a>.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UConn hosts fifth annual event for high schoolers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":175,"featured_media":254477,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2224,1866,1715,2459,2076,1875,2235,2225,2306,2234],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2413],"class_list":["post-254471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cahnr","category-engr","category-community-impact","category-graduate-students","category-research","category-grad-school","category-today-homepage","category-uconn-storrs","category-uconn-voices","category-university-life"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-29 09:05:02","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254471"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254497,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254471\/revisions\/254497"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/254477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254471"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=254471"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=254471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}