Installation view of Portrait Paintings, Ho Science Center, Colgate University, 2025.
The Ho Science Center is now home to a permanent installation of five oil portraits celebrating women in physics and engineering. The collection, titled Intersections, was painted by Leia Francis ’25, a physics major and art and art history minor, for her studio art thesis.
“This project was both a study of representation and a chance to bring art into a space where science is lived and taught every day,” Francis says. “Each portrait is paired with text drawn from personal interviews, inviting viewers to reflect on the people behind scientific discovery and the diversity of stories that shape progress in STEM.”