King's College London

Having been granted an award from the Royal Society of Chemistry Inclusion & Diversity Fund, Jonny Berliner, PhD candidate in the School of Education, Communication & Society began a project to communicate part of his research. With support from the CRESTEM team, and a team of neurodivergent creatives, Berliner developed ‘Elements for Inclusion’, a digital zine telling the life-stories of four successful neurodivergent chemists, depicting the barriers they faced and the lessons they learned to thrive as chemists. Berliner collected the life-stories as part of his PhD research and the zine draws on the RSC’s own research as well as his ecological analysis. The research shows that chemistry is a discipline that requires a diverse range of cognitive approaches and can therefore welcome a diverse range of neurotypes.

The Inclusion & Diversity Fund supports projects that help make the chemical sciences community more inclusive and diverse. This project was a response to the RSC’s special call in support of improving accessibility and disability inclusion in the chemical sciences.

The pictorial format is designed to make the research accessible to a more diverse audience than is usual for academic findings, and being digital allows it to be available freely online, and accessible to anyone internationally.

The zine provides chemistry students with language that will help them to self-advocate and to give educational providers and chemistry employers strategies to create inclusive environments for their neurodivergent chemists.

If you do diversity and inclusion work in a chemistry-related field, please feel free to download and share the zine, or any part of it, making sure to credit the artists if you do. You can download the PDF Zine below under Reports.