Impending global crises and US demographic changes require the United States to develop its intellectual capital fully, especially in science and engineering, in order to maintain its global leadership and economic strength. As US population demographic changes continue and make their way through our educational system, they will directly affect thinking and practices regarding science and engineering education in the United States, the future of science and engineering professions, and the need for diversity in the science and engineering workforce. It is essential to measure and understand the demographics of science and engineering students who will be available to the workforce in the near future, and their same-gender and same-race role models and mentors.

What does queer mean? And how does identifying as queer affect one’s day-to-day life in the arena of materials science and engineering (MSE)? Although when I was growing up, “queer” was treated as an offensive term, queer has been adopted by a growing number of folks who do not conform to traditional societal conventions.1 This encompasses lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, non-binary, intersex, asexual or other broadly related groups (LGBTQ+), and any similarly aligned subpopulations of humanity that can be broadly defined as gender and sexual minorities (GSM).2–4 Identity is an important attribute that has been tied to the effectiveness of efforts to broaden participation in science5 and engineering.6,7 Identity is important because our sense of self is derived from others, as are the social constructs that establish hierarchies on what is desirable or normal.8 If we associate success in a particular career path with a particular identity (e.g., heterosexual, cis-gender, white male), and our identity is other than that, we may carry an extra burden in achieving success in that career path.9 And, as we all have multiple identities (race, ethnicity, gender, religion) based upon various aspects of our backgrounds, it is evident that personal identities that coincide with the norms of a particular professional role are the easiest. The impacts of identity on self-efficacy are inherent to both imposter syndrome10 and stereotype threat.11