Photography by: Vanessa Leroy
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Kathleen

Kathleen, a first-generation Vietnamese Iranian American, is a computational neuroscience and artificial intelligence researcher pursuing her studies at MIT. Before her current work, Kathleen did research at Stony Brook University on how our brains handle information from our eyes. She also studied dreams and creativity at MIT. 

She’s passionate about making sure more women and other groups that aren’t represented as much in computer science get the chance to be a part of it. She wants to make the field more diverse and inclusive. She currently holds the position of President at MIT Women in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Poetry of Science Collection, 2021. Digital Photograph. ©Poetry of Science. All rights reserved.

The Shades of Us

@PoetryofSci

The Shades of Us
Once the day breaks

and we awake

we first open our eyes and take

in the light around us

Reflected and absorbed by objects and

Processed by nerves that pulse and pass

To the cortex

Creating the miracle of color

In our eyes

Above us the sun is bright

Effervescent with light

So take my hand and follow me

To lounge beneath these trees and with

These pencils of color

Sketch with me

Our realities

Golden chalk glitters from my fingers

That create the curls and curves of

A contented Buddha but

My fingers also itch to sketch

The saffron winks of rice

within the Persian dish Zereshk polo

Vermillion red reads the pencil I take

to etch lanterns and flowers that rain in

petal-filled showers

under a moon who may or

May not smile the night we dance in delight

For the newborn year that will

greet us at first light but

The composed Cat curled on my page created

to commemorate

Bates your own drawn Rabbit that

hops and skips across your canvas

2000 is the year as I wonder

What do these shades of color

mean to us?

Maybe we agree on shades of

Blue and green for

Seas of grass and aquamarine and

Everything that dances

in between

But your colors live and breathe beneath

The neat lines upon your sheet

But mine swirl and combine and mix to create

A result of my parents—

Refugees fleeing across my

painted blue seas in search for peace

Through the colors on your page I see

your reality take shape yet the shades on

your page cannot escape

My memories and culture which

carve out space

to fabricate another

meaning in my eyes

Eyes that pulse and receive light at

A tempo that taps a timpani beat but

a rhythm

still different than your own

It's clear to me now

Under these trees

that the reality we share

Is not the reality we see

But that is the beauty of

Color and light and

Eyes that show us as close as it can

How it must be

to live one another's

reality

-Maaya Prasad

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The Poetry of Science

The Project: Scientists of color and local poets of color are collaborating to create poetry based on the work, motivations, and history of the scientists. We are working with fine art photographer Vanessa Leroy, to create portraits of each scientist for public display alongside their associated poetry. Selected poets and scientists will be published in a dedicated issue of an award-winning literary journal. Our Mission: The Poetry of Science counters the negative associations handed down by systemic racism by creating new and positive associations between people of color (POC), the arts, the sciences, how nature is perceived, and what it means to generate knowledge. In this context, POC offer new ways to understand and create novel realities to resist systems of oppression.

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