“Growing up, I always loved biology but I never had a career goal in mind. As a high schooler I thought about being a vet, but decided that would be a sad place to work. In my early college years I thought about being a psychologist, but then realized I could not work with people in that capacity. My junior year of college I learned about fundamental research, or research that is done in the pursuit of knowledge not to solve a problem or create a product. I loved the idea that I could study a system in order to better understand it, so I pursued a research position in a lab studying lizard cognition. As I approached graduation I knew this was the career path for me, but I decided I would study an even stranger animal: the octopus! Now when I tell elementary and middle schoolers that I study octopus brains their jaws drop, and while this is so rewarding in the moment I know that it is essential that these kids have well-informed support systems that never say ‘studying octopus isn’t a real job’. I hope that this book will make reader’s jaw’s drop as they learn about the incredible fundamental research that scientists from historically excluded groups are doing, and that it will encourage support systems to say “anyone can be a scientist, you can study whatever you are curious by”

-Angelique Allen, author