Leslie Hamachi is a chemistry PhD student at Columbia University and loves to bake. After 5 years of weekly Dessert Club meetings, Leslie was inspired to use desserts to communicate science - like these quantum dot cookies. 

First, I want to communicate scientific concepts that people are actually researching to the general public in a way that is understandable. In this case, anyone out-of-field would be the general public. I find that I can’t even understand some organic chemistry research despite being a PhD chemist (my focus is in inorganic nanomaterials). Food is a great way to draw people in and start making some analogies.

Second, I want to provide a resource on science pun desserts that scientists can get excited about and use to bring a dessert to the next department potluck. I want to be the Smitten Kitchen, Christina Tosi, or David Lebovitz but for science themed desserts.

Leslie's blog will launch in the fall of 2018. Keep an eye out for her monthly posts by following her on Twitter or Instagram!

Curious about the other recipients of our scicomm grant? Check them out!