This week is #BlackInPhysics week, a series of events dedicated to celebrating Black physicists and their contributions to the scientific community. In this episode of the podcast, we talk to two of the week’s co-organizers, Ashley Walker and Xandria Quichocho, about what #BlackInPhysics week involves, why it’s needed and what they hope to achieve.

Walker and Quichocho also discuss their own careers and experiences. Neither followed a traditional path into physics – Walker started out studying business, while Quichocho’s first interest was in music education – but they are now deeply immersed in the field, as a planetary astrochemist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and a PhD student in physics education at Michigan State University, respectively. “We’re here, we’re doing stuff and we’re an active part of the science community,” Quichocho says. “We want to show that it’s okay to be a Black physicist, it’s okay to be a Black scientist,” Walker adds. “We want to show more visibility so that children can know that we exist.”