Hispanic Heritage Month Spotlight: STEM Innovators

October 5, 2020

By Beatrice Alvarez

Hispanic Heritage Month rolls on and we have more individuals to learn about and more accomplishments to celebrate! This week we found stories of four leaders in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Get to know them, then learn about the many others whose work has positively impacted all our lives.

Ynés Mexía | Unladylike 2020

Ynés Mexía began her prolific career in science later in life and if she isn't a lesson in perseverance, then water isn't wet. She led botanical expeditions across the North and South American continents when people told her a woman couldn't travel alone. She studied at the University of California, Berkeley when she was told that women's work was at home with the children. Thanks to this Unladylike 2020 clip from American Masters, we learn about the 50 plant species named after Mexía, from the more than 500 ones she discovered.

Jose Hernandez | Reaching for the Stars

Enjoy this inspiring profile of astronaut Jose Hernandez from Valley PBS (in California's Central Valley). Hernandez is the son of migrant farmworkers who worked extra hard and dreamed extra big as a child in Stockton, California. Now that he has space travel under his belt, he spends time visiting schools and encouraging kids to aim for the stars.

Ellen Ochoa | Latinos in 60 Seconds

From Latinos in 60 Seconds, we learn how Ellen Ochoa blazed a trail. Into space. Trained as an engineer, Ochoa was the first Latina astronaut in space when she served aboard the space shuttle Discovery on a 1993 mission. Since then, Ochoa joined three additional space missions and served as the 11th director of the Johnson Space Center (JSC). By the way, she was only the second woman to be director of the JSC, and the first Latina to do so.

Mario Molina | Living St. Louis

Mario Molina is a Nobel Prize-winning chemist because he helped discover the Antarctic ozone hole. In general, we have Molina to thank for our knowledge about ozone depletion, how chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) harm the ozone, and how to repair the ozone layer. In this episode of Living St. Louis from Nine Network we join a conversation with Molina about his life's work.

If you want to really go on a deep dive about climate change, you can see Molina and all the other scientists involved in the global response to the ozone depletion crisis in the documentary: Ozone Hole: How We Save the Planet.