Beyond Curie is a portrait series of women who have made significant contributions in STEM fields.[1][2] As of November 2018, the series features 42 women, including all 18 female Nobel Prize winners in Physics, Chemistry, and Physiology or Medicine.[3]
The series was created by Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya, a former neuroscience researcher and designer who named the project after two-time Nobel prize winner Marie Curie, with the goal of highlighting other important female scientists who are less well known.[4][5]Beyond Curie has raised $44,172 from 856 backers across two Kickstarter campaigns.[6][7]
Phingbodhipakkiya worked with the March for Science organizers to make special Beyond Curie posters that could be freely downloaded and brought to a rally or protest.[10][11]
In partnership with Outside, Phingbodhipakkiya developed five portraits specifically focused on women whose work focused on health and the environment.[12]
Phingbodhipakkiya presented some of the Beyond Curie portraits at TEDWomen 2017, where she said the project was "about finding your heroes" and shared stories of female scientists who only learned about some of the historical figures of the series after encountering Beyond Curie.[13][14]
In September and November 2018, the Beyond Curie posters were displayed in a highway tunnel in Breda, Netherlands by 3 Second Gallery.[15]
In additional to graphic illustration, Phingbodhipakkiya worked with technologists at NC State to develop 3D augmented reality animations for a number of the women, including McClintock, Greider, Blackburn, Joliot-Curie, Johnson, Buck, Ng, Jemison, Mirzakhani, Franklin, Rubin, Dresselhaus, Goeppert-Mayer, Tu, Yalow.[16] The augmented reality animations can be seen using a free mobile app called "Beyond Curie" available on Google Play[17] and App Store.[18]
Beyond Curie has won several awards, including 1st Place in Multimedia / Interactive Media in the 2017 International Design Awards[19] and the Red Dot 2017 design award.[20]
Phingbodhipakkiya was invited to speak about the project to the employees at Google in November 2018.[21] The project was featured in a blog post by venture capitalist and Kickstarter board member Fred Wilson. [22]