Ep107: Kalliopi Monoyios, Plastic is More Than Bags and Straws

Kalliopi Monoyios is a visual creative dedicated to communicating the wonder of the natural world to a wide and varied audience.  After graduating from Princeton University with a degree in geology, she built her career as a science illustrator for the prominent paleontologist Neil Shubin at The University of Chicago. Her scientific illustrations have appeared inside and on the covers of top peer-review journals such as Nature and Science as well as in four popular science books, including The New York Times best-seller, Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin as well as his most recent, Some Assembly Required. In 2011, she co-founded Symbiartic, a blog covering the intersection of science and art for Scientific American. Since 2019, she has been on the Board of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators, a group of professionals who communicate science through art, acting as President since 2020. Now, driven by the conviction that science communicators operating in all spheres are a critical part of creating a scientifically literate public, she is developing new avenues of public engagement with science via her own art and curated exhibits. 


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The Shubin Lab at the University of Chicago studies the great leaps in evolution by combining paleontology with cutting-edge molecular biology and genetics. Professor Shubin is also an author, frequent public speaker, and television host, having authored three popular non-fiction science books and hosted the PBS series Your Inner Fish (highly recommend!).

Patterns of Consumption, a solo exhibit of work by Kalliopi Monoyios, explores the complexity of our relationship with plastic with humor, beauty, and wonder. It is on view at the Littleton Museum in Littleton, CO now through June 26, 2022. An online artist's talk will be scheduled in May. View select images below.

The Guild of Natural Science Illustrators (GNSI) is a 54-year-strong organization that began at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, USA. Today, they are a community of over 800 visual science communication professionals and enthusiasts worldwide. In addition to functioning as a generous and resourceful community of peers, they host the annual GNSI Visual SciComm Conference, publish the Journal of Natural Science Illustration, and run workshops and social events year-round, both in-person and online.

Ridwell, a company that specializes in keeping trash out of landfills by collecting hard to recycle items and finding local companies to either sustainably reuse or recycle them. (For the record, I don't get any perks for referring people to them beyond a cleaner world for us all!)

Sashiko Embroidery on Instagram

Symbiartic was a blog written by Kalliopi Monoyios, Glendon Mellow and Katie McKissick covering the intersection of science and art for Scientific American from 2011-2016. Select archives are still available here and here.


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