Lauren Esposito

Photo by Nate Dappen

“I can unequivocally say that I love my job,” says Dr. Lauren Esposito, the Schlinger chair of arachnology (a.k.a. the study of spiders) at the California Academy of Sciences and co-founder of the online group, 500 Queer Scientists. She should love her work, which allows her to research the evolutionary processes of arachnids and their adaptations over time to various habitats. Still, she wasn’t always certain about her life’s path. In middle school, she was torn between being a rocket scientist or a hobo, a dilemma she pondered in an assigned essay. “While I got an F on the assignment, thinking back it really encapsulated me as a human being.” Esposito describes herself as both analytical and adventurous, as comfortable in a lab studying spiders and scorpions as she is sailing the Caribbean. She is also an advocate for LGBTQ advancement and visibility in STEM fields, which is how 500 Queer Scientists was born. “Finding my path in an industry where LGBTQ people are told to leave that aspect of their identity outside the lab is daunting,” she says, “and for many years I tried in earnest to keep my queer identity separate from my scientist identity. Now I believe bringing those two parts together makes me a more productive scientist and a happier person.” The organization seeks to raise awareness of gay, queer, and transgender STEM professionals so that current and future researchers don’t have to face the lonely and often isolating position that Esposito once did. “I want them to know that they have a place in science,” she says. “We are here, we are queer, and our discoveries propel science forward.” For her advocacy, Esposito was recently given the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Science and Technical Professionals’ Walt Westman Award. —RK