Earlier this year, life-size, 3D-printed acrylic gel sculptures of modern Stanford women in STEM added vibrant punctuation to the Science and Engineering Quad. The statues were a satellite of #IfThenSheCan–The Exhibit, a collection of 120 female figures designed to open the eyes of girls around the country to STEM careers. The campus pop-up included fire scientist Jenny Briggs, ’94; roboticist and dancer Catie Cuan, MS ’20, PhD ’23; mechanical engineer and toymaker Debbie Sterling, ’05; microbiologist Dorothy Tovar, PhD ’22; and molecular architect and polymer chemist Helen Tran, a former Stanford postdoc. “I hope it sends a message to all students,” Sterling told Stanford Report, “especially the young women on campus who may be second-guessing themselves like I did, that they do belong at Stanford and they do belong in STEM.”
Summer Batte, ’99, is the editor of Stanfordmag.org. Email her at summerm@stanford.edu.
