The Lawrence Hall of Science
The public science center of the University of California, Berkeley.
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First place winner at the California Science and Engineering Fair, environmental science category
A: My name is Emma Wang. My pronouns are she/her. The way I engage with science and learning is very interdisciplinary. That comes from my background in public speaking, debate, Model UN, and mock trial.
I don’t think of science as only laboratory work or research papers. Science is interacting with communities, doing field work, talking to people, working with policy, collaborating with engineers, and working with scientists too. It’s the combination of everything, and that’s how I decide what I want to learn about and what questions I want to pursue.
A: I’ve been a floor facilitator at The Lawrence for three years, but my main connection comes from a research program I did at The Lawrence Hall of Science in Fall 2024 through the East Bay Academy for Young Scientists (EBAYS).
It was an environmental justice research program, and that’s where I met Jim Neiss-Cortez, who was my instructor and mentor. He taught us in depth about environmental justice—redlining, lead exposure, and the history of how lead is embedded in our environment today.
Through the program, we analyzed soil in West Oakland. We went to DeFremery Park and took randomized samples. We dug up soil, used cotton gloves on the ground, collected samples, and then went back to The Lawrence to analyze it using X-ray fluorescence (XRF). We measured and weighed everything, input our data, and started writing it up—but there were scheduling delays at the end of the program.
That made me want to take the project further. I told Jim I wanted to present the work at my county science and engineering fair, and he suggested I compare West Oakland data with Piedmont.
I got data from Piedmont and compared it to West Oakland, and the disparities were intense. The West Oakland child ingestion rate was about five times greater than Piedmont’s. But surprisingly, both neighborhoods had lead levels above the EPA’s safe level.
The research program inspired me to pursue environmental justice work, and Jim supported me throughout. I made it to the county fair and then the California Science and Engineering Fair, where I competed in the environmental science/soil pollution category—and I won first place.
What I loved was presenting to judges and hearing how they appreciated how interdisciplinary the project was. The Lawrence taught me that science is more than numbers on a paper.
A: A mentor isn’t just someone who helps you or amplifies you—it’s someone who changes you. Jim’s class was the first time I learned about redlining, and once you learn about it, you never forget it. You start seeing it everywhere.
Another thing Jim did that was influential was giving me space to take agency in the project. He didn’t micromanage me. He gave me room to do further research into redlining, design the graphics of my poster, shape the analysis, and create something compelling and eye-catching.
It’s not just what he did for me—it’s also what he didn’t do that pushed me to grow.
A: Jim made my work possible, and I also had a lot of support from my family—traveling to science fairs, enrolling, and practicing presenting.
The science fair judges were also important because they’re working scientists and engineers. One judge had researched lead pollution and child lead ingestion in the Bay Area and told me to look into the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project.
I volunteered there for a summer and worked on designing lead awareness posters. They were also working on tree planting in West Oakland to address air pollution. That community-based work really inspired me.
After that, I found another organization called 350 Bay Area, which does environmental justice work at a larger scale through policy, programs, rallies, and protests. All of these experiences have affirmed my desire to keep bridging science and communities—environmental science and justice.
A: You have to redefine the way you look at science. Science isn’t just laboratory work or research papers—it’s turning on the lights, using your microwave, cooking food. Science is part of everyday life.
Historically, the narrative has been that science is rigid and distant from the world, but that’s not true. There are so many opportunities for people interested in racial injustice, patriarchy, languages, and history. All of that is included in science.
Science is the process of asking why and asking how. It’s not limited to anything technical or out of reach.
And just because you’re not discovering something new doesn’t mean it doesn’t have value. People don’t always question the world because they think the answer is just a Google search away. But holding knowledge and retaining it is vital. If you don’t build your understanding, you can’t create questions that go beyond what’s already been recorded and studied.
A: My work has been about making science more inclusive. Judges appreciated that my project was relatively accessible, but presented in a compelling way. I connected it to broader contexts like the Flint, Michigan water crisis and the increase in neurodevelopmental harm in children after lead exposure.
I think my research is inclusive because it’s designed to address communities that have been ignored—especially redlined communities like West Oakland. Even though there are organizations dedicated to protecting them, there’s still a lack of awareness outside those communities.
People don’t realize how much the environment is shaped by design choices—limited walking space, limited green space, lead in school water systems for decades, and soil that young children touch and can ingest.
These are ordinary things that seem safe on the surface. My work is about investigating what’s underneath—why it’s dangerous, and why it matters.
A: I think the world would be radically different. There would be more research into issues that affect people right now—more than 5% of global funding directed to women’s health, and more research into redlining, PFAS, and how toxins are embedded in low-income communities and food deserts.
There would be more research into where policies and urban design have failed—where issues persist today and where they came from historically—rather than prioritizing research that doesn’t directly help people who are living through these problems right now.
A: There are multiple people I’m inspired by. Jim is one of them, but I’m most inspired by people who bring science to the average person.
Al Gore and An Inconvenient Truth is one example—asking why and how, and directing those questions at people right now.
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring is another. She wasn’t writing a scientific manuscript for specialists—she explained science in terms people could understand, empathize with, and connect to.
Anyone who asks scientific questions and directs them back toward people is someone I’m deeply inspired by.
A: My favorite thing about science is that it reveals how little we know. So many discoveries today undo discoveries from the past, and future discoveries will probably undo what we think we know now.
People say science is logical and gives concrete answers, but I don’t think that’s true. Science shows there’s always another answer underneath the surface—another mechanism, explanation, or law.
It reflects humanity’s imperfection. We’re still asking many of the same questions centuries later because we’re still struggling to fully comprehend the whole story. Science reveals both our intelligence and our lack of it.