The Mixed Museum Launches Scientist in Residence Programme
Building on The Mixed Museum's recent work with Britain’s wartime and Cold War ‘brown babies’ community in their search for American relatives, TMM has launched a Scientist in Residence (SiR) programme. We’re delighted to welcome genealogist Dr Sophie Kay as our inaugural SiR, helping our community better understand the science behind DNA testing.
Dr Kay has also been appointed, alongside TMM Director Dr Chamion Caballero, as a co-Section President for Medicine at the 2025 British Science Festival. Dr Kays and Caballero will be joined by WW2 'brown baby' Arlene Nelson at TMM's Festival panel event in Liverpool discussing the benefits and challenges of at-home ancestry testing.
Read on to learn more about the SiR programme and how you can book a FREE ticket at the panel event on Saturday 13 September.
About TMM’s new Scientist-in-Residence scheme
At The Mixed Museum, we not only want to preserve and share Britain’s long history of racial mixing, but also open up new, inclusive pathways into that history. In 2022, we launched our Artist in Residence (AiR) programme to support this aim. Now, we’re delighted to introduce our Scientist in Residence (SiR) partnerhip scheme.
During our Museums Association’s Mindsets + Missions project 'Reclaiming History Through Science', we brought together members of Britain’s so-called 'brown babies' community - children born to Black GIs and white British women during and after World War II - to explore how DNA testing had shaped their efforts to find lost family members and rebuild fragmented personal histories.
For many in this community, DNA is a route to reclaim family, history, and identity. Their family search journey – and interest in taking a DNA test - is shared by the growing number of people from mixed racial backgrounds who contact the museum also looking for information about relatives. However, the science behind this often life-changing test is generally little understood by those who use it.
That experience helped spark the idea for the SiR programme. Just like TMM’s AiR partnership, SiR is designed to bring in external collaborators to explore questions through a community-centred lens. We aim to work with a range of scientists to help TMM’s communities better understand topics, themes and processes which have affected or are relevant to TMM’s community historically and today, such as eugenics, hair care or genetic health issues such as sickle-cell disease.
Meet our first Scientist in Residence: Dr Sophie Kay
We’re excited to welcome genealogist and science communicator Dr Sophie Kay as our first Scientist in Residence. Sophie previously collaborated with the TMM team on our Reclaiming History Through Science project, where she developed a three part private webinar series explaining the science behind DNA testing for members of our ‘brown babies’ community. We’ll be working with Dr Kay during her residency to develop more learning around DNA testing, including for those who belong to groups beyond the ‘brown babies’ community.
We should all have the right to know who our biological parents and grandparents are, and to embrace the many different aspects of identity and heritage which this may bring […]. I hope that my collaboration with TMM as its first Scientist in Residence will open up conversations about the experiences, needs and concerns of Black and mixed-heritage DNA testers navigating a search for a parent or grandparent – or indeed wishing to test for general genealogical curiosity.
- Dr Sophie Kay
Join Dr Sophie Kay and TMM at the British Science Festival 2025
In recognition of The Mixed Museum’s work with Dr Sophie Kay to improve public understanding of the science behind DNA testing, the British Science Festival has appointed Dr Kay and TMM Director Dr Chamion Caballero as its 2025 Co-Section Presidents for Medicine.
At the Festival – which takes place in Liverpool in September 2025 - Drs Kay and Caballero will host an in-person panel discussion at the Bluecoat - Garden Room, exploring the emotional and scientific realities of at-home DNA testing. They’ll be joined by World War 2 ‘brown baby’ Arlene Nelson, who will share her experience of using DNA testing to reconnect with her American family.
PANEL EVENT: DNA and Identity: Ethics and emotions in ancestral genetic testing
Saturday 13 September, 16.30-17.30
Venue: Bluecoat - Garden Room
BOOK YOUR FREE TICKET AT THE BRITISH SCIENCE FESTIVAL WEBSITE
The event will include plenty of time for audience questions, giving attendees a chance to put their own queries about ancestry testing to Sophie, Arlene, and Chamion. To find out more and sign up for this free event, visit our Scientist in Residence page or the British Science Festival website.
We are very grateful to the British Science Festival for supporting our panel attendance and helping us bring these vital conversations to a wider audience.
Learn more
Visit our Scientist in Residence page
Read more about Dr Sophie Kay’s residency
Learn about the British Science Festival and sign up to our British Science Festival panel event in Liverpool on 13 September 2025.
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