Amanda Schochet

Amanda Schochet is a computational ecologist and the co-founder of Micro, a fleet of 6-foot-tall museums that introduce people to fundamental scientific principles in locations where they least expect to encounter them. Founded in 2016 by Schochet and Charles Philipp (also a Science Sandbox @ New Lab fellow), Micro brings together designers, scientists, storytellers and artists to squeeze the best parts of museums down into boxes that can go anywhere. Micro’s fleet introduces viewers to the core sciences, with a museum on a new topic released every six months. Its first museum, the Smallest Mollusk Museum, debuted in 2016 and is about to be released around New York City. The museum uses 15 exhibits, five screens, eight sculptures, three optical illusions, a giant hologram and a liter of slime to tell a story about natural selection and environmental systems spanning millions of years. Before launching Micro, Schochet worked with NASA and the Smithsonian Institution.