In honour of this month's LGBTQ+ History Month's theme "Science and Technology", the Online Library is sharing some inspiring biographies of tech entrepreneurs in the LGBTQ+ community.
"Tim Cook: the genius who took Apple to the next level" by Leander Kahney
Tim Cook was the man, who, in the wake of Steve Jobs' death, turned Apple into a trillion dollar company. However, what many people may not know is that on his journey to the top, he always followed a strong philosophy of giving back. Even now, as a Forbes 500 CEO, he continues to advocate for Gay Rights, Civil and Racial Equality. Mr. Cook has also pledged to donate all of his fortune to charity (during his lifetime) as well as incentivizing charitable giving among his employees by instilling Apple's charitable giving program. Current charitable causes he has and continues to champion including HIV/AIDs research, civil rights and equality and the environment.
“Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, 63rd African American Woman to Recieve Ph.D. in Physics.” by Brittany Dandy, Black enterprise, 2015
Cosmologist and particle physicist, Prescod-Weinstein has worked in the ground breaking fields of quantum and theoretical physics. However, due to her multi-racial background (a mother from Barbados and a father of Russian/Ashkenazi descent), she has often been asked to define herself. Openly out as a queer agender person, Prescod-Weinstein has volunteered, spoken openly and been awarded for her work advocating for equality across the sciences.
Sally Ride: breaking barriers and defying gravity by Jackie Perez
Sally Ride was the first American woman and at the time the youngest American Astronaut to fly into outer space. What makes this book an interesting read isn't just the challenges of Ride's work trajectory and her amazing life experiences from serving on the committees investigating the Challenger and Columbia tragedies to watching Billy Jean King win the "Battle of the Sexes" but the time frame in which she lived a fluid and fairly private private life. Her story is a mirror of gay women's roles in US Society at the turn of the 20th century. Author, Jackie Perez captures those milestones on a personal level with integrity and candor.
CC BY-SA 2.0
"The contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley's pursuit of power" by Max Chafkin
Buckle your seatbelts. Author, Max Chafkin's insightful biography of Peter Thiel is one of the most unconventional stories in LGBTQ+ modern history and Thiel's biography is anything but predictable. One of the original investors in Facebook, a co-founder of Paypal, Thiel was born German, raised in Africa, emigrated to become an American, recently became a citizen of New Zealand was the first openly gay man to speak at the Republican National Convention and has also publicly announced his religious beliefs to be small "o" Orthodox".
Pakistan-Born Astrophysicist Nergis Mavalvala Named Dean of MIT School of Science. Lahore: HT Digital Streams Limited, 2020
Openly out as a Lesbian person of colour, Mavalvala is also a MacArther Foundation Genius Award recipient. She has been repeatedly celebrated and awarded in the world of sciences, and recognized by the country of Pakistan for her groundbreaking work in gravitational waves and quantum measurement science.
"Alan Turing: his work and impact" edited by S. Barry Cooper and J. van Leeuwen
You've seen the film, now read the book. It's always better...In this biography of Alan Turing, Cooper and van Leeuwen decode the man behind the decoder.
Have a book you'd like to recommend for our LGBGQ+ collections? Please feel free to let us know below.
*All Images provided copyright free via https://www.commons.wikimedia.org and the MacArthur Foundation