Science Slug Queen candidate seeks Aug. 9 coronation

It takes more than a little effort to transform oneself from a respectable, professional university employee to a candidate for Eugene Slug Queen.

For Brandy Todd, assistant director for administration at the UO Oregon Center for Optics, competing in the city’s offbeat annual competition starts with applying enough makeup to paint a kitchen. Then comes a white-plastic lab coat and a pair of Chuck Taylors laced up – excruciatingly – all the way to the knee.

Finally, a wig of such phosphorescent green as to make a certain football team envious.

Voilá – meet “Professor Doctor Mildred Slugwak Dresselhaus.”

“People say, ‘oh, are you a lab experiment gone wrong?’” said Todd, er, um, make that professor Dresselhaus. “I say, ‘this is all natural, baby.’”

Dresselhaus – um, or is that Todd? – aims to be the next Slug Queen, the city’s unofficial ambassador and beloved symbol of all things quirky about this funky town we all call home. But this is one candidate with an inspiring twist: If elected, Todd will use her celebrity to promote science for young girls and boys, aligning her reign as Slug Queen with work she does year-round at the UO.

Todd is the director of the Science Program to Inspire Creativity and Excellence or SPICE, an informal science outreach program targeting middle school-aged girls. The goals of the program are to encourage more girls to pursue science education and careers, to increase the number of low-income, first-generation college attenders and to contribute to a generation of scientifically literate citizens.

“We do this through fun, hands-on science activities like ‘the electrocuted pickle,’ ‘liquid nitrogen ice cream,’ crime scene mysteries and building pinball machines,” Todd said.

SPICE runs summer camps, the fall UO Science Open House and the spring UO Science and Invention Fair, in addition to lots of community outreach.

As Dresselhaus, Todd will advocate for science education in the community – starting Aug. 9, when she competes to become the next Slug Queen. The event takes place at 6 p.m. on the Saturday Market stage at Eighth and Oak streets, and Todd will be looking for all the rowdy fan support she can get (crowd noise counts in the judging).

SPICE will also do free science activities with kids and families starting at 5 p.m., and look for Dresselhaus to produce a dazzling demonstration during the contest.

“It will be explosive,” Todd said. “And yummy.”

The university has already made its mark on the event: Debbie Williamson, public relations and marketing coordinator for the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, took the crown in 2011 as Queen Holly GoSlugly. Leigh Ann Jasheway, an adjunct instructor in the School of Journalism and Communication, was 2007 SLUG Queen Glorious Gastropause, and 2006 Queen Slugretha Latifah Uleafa Gastropodia Jackson (TK McDonald) was office manager for the UO Philosophy Department; Laura Minnick, meanwhile, was a graduate student when she became Queen Carmen Slugana in 1999.

Named for Mildred Spiewak Dresselhaus, an emerita physics professor at MIT and “queen of carbon science,” Todd’s alter ego would capitalize on the cachet of being Slug Queen to boost the popularity of science for a critical age group.

“The Slug Queens have this wonderful tradition of working with the community and raising awareness for causes,” Todd said. “But there hasn’t been a good connection between the science education community and the Slug Queen community to come together and share our love of outreach. There’s a wonderful spirit of philanthropy in this community and I would love to connect with those people.

“The more support we get,” Todd added, “the more kiddos we can reach.”

One young student rooting for Todd (and Dresselhaus) is Morgan Vauk, a senior at Springfield High School and former SPICE participant who now helps with the camps.

Vauk has always been interested in science, but she was mostly bored by what was served up in class. SPICE ignited her interest in science (literally, Vauk remembers the excitement of making fireballs) and now the 17-year-old intends to make a living at it.

“I don’t really have a career in mind,” Vauk said. “Just as long as I can spend my day in a laboratory, I’ll be happy.”

- story and photo by Matt Cooper, UO Office of Strategic Communications