Rochelle Diamond

Photo by STEM Advantage

For Rochelle Diamond (left), the road through microbiology and chemistry hasn’t always run smoothly. Early in her career, she was asked to leave one biochemistry research team, she says, after a colleague learned that she was gay. Fortunately, she didn’t let the incident deter or shame her. She found a supportive community with the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Scientists and soon after landed an interview with the California Institute of Technology. “I came out in my interview,” she writes, “and the rest is history. I have found a supportive champion who has allowed me to blossom and be all that I can be.” She is now the director of Caltech’s Flow Cytometry Cell Sorting Facility, which measures the properties of cells by suspending them in liquid and “flowing” them through laser beams. (The data, widely applicable across the biological and chemistry sciences, helps researchers better understand the properties of cells and abnormalities.) She is also the chair of the board of directors of the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technological Professionals (NOGLSTP), intertwining both her science and her activism. She has brought the NOGLSTP to national attention through such innovations as the Out to Innovate Summits, which every two years bring together LGBTQ scientists, researchers, and students nationwide. “The most rewarding part about my activism,” she says, “is helping to change the climate for LGBTQ people in classrooms and work environments.” Thanks to the efforts of Diamond and others like her, LGBTQ scientists everywhere can be out and proud. —RK