JONATHAN PLAZA AND ALEXANDRIA TRUJILLOA planned march in support of science on Washington, DC, has inspired the organization of satellite events across the U.S. and around the world. While the organizers of March for Science have yet to announce a date for the flagship event, volunteers have already assumed leadership roles in planning gatherings in their own cities. Alexandria Trujillo, a pharmacology PhD student at the University at Buffalo, New York, and Jonathan Plaza, an undergraduate computer science student and research assistant at the Buffalo VA Medical Center, are two such volunteers.
The Scientist: How did you both become involved in this initiative, and what are your roles?
Alexandria Trujillo: I got started with this movement just by noticing, online, the DC organizers’ group. [We] decided that Buffalo has a large enough science community and community that is interested in science that we would be able to represent the same ideas that the DC group wants to do, but we could also highlight the issues that are more specific to Buffalo and western New York and also just highlight some of our [local] scientists.
Jonathan Plaza: I’m responsible for getting [event] staff together and delegating different tasks. For example, we’ve been working on our website, which is already up, we’ve been working on a logo, and I’ve ...
