About

Science is such an important part of our daily life, in everything from our cellphones and automobiles, to the clothes on our backs. With all the challenges the world faces today, from food and medicine to energy and climate change, we need all hands on deck! While performing research and publishing academic papers is important for informing the scientific community and advancing technology, it’s also important that we as scientists tell our stories to the future generations and to the public at large.

You don’t have to have a PhD in Chemical Engineering to appreciate the importance of scientific research. Each description and coloring page in our research coloring book series is based off of current and recent research performed by PhD student scientists, postdocs, and professors. By sharing these coloring pages, we hope to spark interest in science and engineering for all young students, regardless of gender, race, or socioeconomic status- because just as the challenges of the world affect us all, we will need bright minds from all backgrounds to work together to build a brighter tomorrow. We keep the coloring pages and content on our website free for anyone to print or download, because we don't want money to be a barrier for anyone who wishes to learn about science and find inspiration from our featured researchers.

Adults and parents: We encourage you to participate in our coloring books too! Part of being a good scientist is sharing your results with the community- and who doesn't love a relaxing break to color?

Hi! My name is Dr. Julie Rorrer and I am an Assisstant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington-Seattle. My research program is focused on using materials called catalysts to enable sustainable chemical reactions like the chemical recycling of waste plastic and the production of renewable fuels and chemicals. After graduating with my PhD in Chemical Engineering from UC Berkeley in 2019, I was an Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Chemical Engineering at MIT. After publishing my first scientific paper in grad school, I was motivated by my love of art, science, and teaching to create a drawing of my research to explain what I do to the non-scientific community, especially to the young students I volunteered with through the CRS Bay Area Scientists in Schools (BASIS) program and to the young women we reach out to through the Expanding Your Horizons program. This inspired me to start illustrating research from other Ph.D. students and post-docs in my department, and seek out artistic scientists to draw their own work, which came together as ColorMePhD. Now, I am continuing my love of fundamental research with my lab at the University of Washington, as well as working on the the next volume of ColorMePhD!

While most of the original research series coloring pages are hand-drawn by me, as ColorMePhD has grown, we have featured a variety of scientists/artists that have used both hand-drawn art and computer-generated techniques to bring you creative coloring pages! I’d like to thank all of the scientists and artists for their contributions, all of our volunteer translators who are helping translate our content into Spanish and other languages, and all of the educators and mentors who are inspiring the next generation of scientists! I hope you enjoy!