We are so proud to celebrate these 10 change-makers who were proposed and voted in by the community. We have received lovely words about their work, their impact, and their commitment to improving the lives of LGBTQIA+ people in STEM and beyond.
We will celebrate them in person at our 10th anniversary celebration in London on April 17. Below is a little bit about them in their own words.
Dr Alex Bond
Dr Alex Bond is the Principal Curator and Curator in Charge of Birds at the Natural History Museum, and co-lead of the Adrift Lab, a research collective that focuses on seabirds & marine plastics, and the conservation of island systems. An active researcher for more than 20 years, he has published 200 peer-reviewed articles, 9 book chapters, and 2 monographs as well as a children’s book about bird diversity. Since 2005, he has been fortunate enough to study and conserve birds in Canada, Alaska, Australia, Tristan da Cunha, the Pitcairn Islands, and elsewhere (as well as unexpectedly swim in four of the world’s five oceanic basins). As former chair of LGBTQ+STEM and passionate advocate for making a better place for marginalized scientists, he was awarded the 2020 Royal Society Athena Prize and the 2022 BTO Marsh Award for Ornithology. Since 2014, he has lived in the UK with his husband, Jeremy.
Prof. Alfonso Aragón-Salamanca
Alfonso was born in a very small village north of Segovia, Spain. He was the first member of his family to go to university and studied Physics and Astrophysics in Bilbao and Madrid. After a short period away from academia, working for a technology company, he completed a PhD at Durham University. After a couple of short postdocs in Durham and Cambridge, Alfonso became a Royal Society University Research Fellow, spending the first five years of his fellowship at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge. In 1999 he moved to the University of Nottingham and joined the then new Astronomy Group as a research fellow and lecturer. He subsequently became Professor of Astronomy in 2008, and in 2014 he became the Head of the Nottingham Astronomy Group, where he continues to work. Alfonso’s research focuses on understanding the physical processes that shape galaxies and their evolution. He is also an enthusiastic and committed teacher and mentor. He has had – and continues to have – very many excellent PhD students and postdocs who, according to him, have done most of the work.
Dr Alison May Berner
Alison is a Senior Clinical Lecturer and an NIHR Advanced Fellow at Queen Mary University of London, and an Honorary Consultant in Medical Oncology at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and Chelsea & Westminster Hospitals. She is the UK’s only
oncologist to be dual trained gender identity medicine and leads the UK Cancer and Transition Service (UCATS), a world first national clinic to integrate local oncology and gender affirming care or transgender and gender diverse people in the UK. In recognition of this work, she was recently made a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. Her mixed-methods programme of research centres on reducing cancer care inequalities according to sex, gender and sexual orientation. She is President of British Association Gender Identity Specialists and a Trustee of the OUTpatients LGBTIAQ+ cancer charity.
Avery Cunningham
Avery Cunningham is Senior Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Business Partner at Birmingham City University, where he works across the university to embed inclusive practice and address structural inequalities in higher education. He holds a degree in Nuclear Science and Materials and previously worked in widening participation in STEM, supporting more diverse groups of students to access and succeed in STEM pathways.
Avery has been involved in LGBTQ+ STEM advocacy since 2015, when he joined oSTEM (Out in STEM), a global organisation supporting LGBTQ+ students and professionals in STEM, through the founding of his university’s local chapter. He has since held several leadership roles within the organisation, including Director of Collegiate Membership, supporting the development and engagement of student chapters across the global network. Avery later served as Conference Co-Chair for the 2023 oSTEM Annual Conference in Anaheim and the 2024 oSTEM Annual Conference in Portland, helping lead the volunteer experience at two of the organisation’s largest gatherings of LGBTQ+ students and professionals in STEM. He now serves as Interim President of oSTEM (Out in STEM), helping guide the organisation’s global community and international growth.As part of this work, Avery founded STEM, LGBTQ & You, oSTEM’s UK regional conference, which recently celebrated its eighth year and has been recognised as one of the Top 10 LGBT+ History Month events by The Guardian. He is also Chair of IOM3Pride, the LGBTQ+ network of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. Outside of work and volunteering, Avery enjoys making stained glass, playing board games, and spending time with his cats, Miso and Nori. Through his volunteer leadership and advocacy, Avery has helped strengthen visibility, connection, and support for LGBTQ+ people in STEM.
Through his leadership across oSTEM, IOM3Pride, and wider STEM communities, Avery has helped strengthen international connections, create spaces where LGBTQ+ students and professionals in STEM can build community and share experiences, and expand the visibility and support of LGBTQ+ people across the STEM sector.
Dr Clara Barker
I am a thin film material scientist, currently specialising in thin film superconductors for quantum and fusion applications. I am a PDRA in the Centre for Applied Superconductivity at Oxford University, Dean for E&D at Linacre College and the Institute of Physics’ Representative to Council for Inclusion and Diversity. I sit on various EDI panels, including the Royal Society’s E&D committee. I won a Points of Light award from my volunteering from the Prime Minister in 2017 and Oxford University’s first VC Diversity Role Model award in 2018. I was a speaker at TEDxLondon Women in 2018 and am featured in various children’s books aimed at highlighting LGBTI+ scientists, such as Science People and Engineers Making a Difference. In my spare time, I also run a youth group for LGBTI+ young people. I’m also a climber and a board game/ D&D nerd.
You can find me on social media via https://linktr.ee/drclarabarker.
Jazmeen Isa Qureshi
An interdisciplinary “Queering” Ecologist, Poet, Facilitator, “ex” Marine biologist, writer and Environmental Advisor.
Currently PhD-ing in Queer(ing) Ecologies at the Global Sustainability Institute – where she focuses on understanding (and potentially dismantling) – oppressive “realities” in our and other organism ecosystems, centring invertebrates and their interactions with diaspora and other communities, and weaves and plays with critical/system thinking.
Other than that, they are building workshops, spaces and the reimagination of bugs, systems and humans.
Dr Jamie Gallagher
Jamie is an engagement trainer and consultant who works with universities, charities, museums and professional bodies helping them to engage the public more effectively. He is also a science communicator and can often be found on TV, radio or stage making research accessible. In his free time Jamie creates science and sci fi pin badges which he sells to raise money for LGBTQ+ homeless charity AKT. The pins are found in labs, libraries and classrooms all around the world and have raised almost £50k to help homeless LGBTQ+ people
Dr Matthew Sinton
I am a research fellow at the University of Manchester, where I investigate how we fuel our response to infection, and how this differs between acute and chronic infections. I started my career by doing an undergraduate degree at the University of Teesside, where I fell in love with biology. From there, and through a very circuitous route, I took on a role as a research assistant at the University of Edinburgh, before going on to do my MSc and PhD in Cardiovascular Biology. During my PhD, I became aware of Pride in STEM and LGBT+ STEM and wanted to create a similar network for people in Scotland and founded The STEM Village. Due to the pandemic, we quickly adopted an online approach to our events, and have hosted events for queer people in STEM from across the world. I has been an absolute privilege to meet so many talented people from our community, from around the world, and to not only find out about the science that they’re doing, but also about their experiences. As an early career group leader, I plan to continue supporting our community and trying to demonstrate that a career in STEM is for everyone, not just an elite privileged group.
Dr Robin Hayward
Dr Robin Hayward is a science communicator, designer, and forest ecologist, working at the intersection of environmental research, academic storytelling, and queer community representation. As a scientist, Robin uses their experience to create art celebrating queer identities through parallels in nature, as well as driving conversations and creating resources to support LGBTQ+ inclusion in fieldwork. They also designed the badge logo for LGBT+ History Month 2026, which has been used to raise national awareness of LGBTQ+ role models through the month’s 2026 theme of Science and Innovation. Through in-person talks and their online presence as CanopyRobin, Robin shares personal experiences as a trans person in STEM and promotes their art to increase LGBTQ+ visibility while fundraising for their transition.
Sarah Cosgriff
Sarah Cosgriff (she/they) is a freelance science communicator who is passionate about raising the visibility of LGBTQ+ people in STEM. They do this through presenting the science show ‘Fab-lab-ulous!’, developing school classroom resources and facilitating visits from LGBTQ+ scientists to a LGBTQ+ youth group through the project, ‘STEM for Queer Youth’.
Sarah’s work also involves raising the visibility of asexuality, and highlighting the issues asexual people in STEM can face. They are the co-founder of the online community space Aces in STEM, and share their personal experiences through talks and social media content.