A Marriage of Art and Science

McGill (top) and Park met at Swarthmore and have lived and worked together for 25 years. “People think we’re crazy, but we wouldn’t have it any other way!” says McGill. They have two daughters. Fiona (far right), now studies illustration at RISD, and Clara, a sixth grader.

Gaël McGill ’95, a cell and molecular biologist and 3D animator, and Jeannie Park ’94, a multimedia artist and software engineer, have followed that path for the past 25 years with Digizyme (Digizyme.com). The small but mighty company they founded creates scientific visuals that help make complex concepts clear and engaging.

Their work is geared to all, from elementary- school children visiting a science museum to scientific experts in biotech to delegates at the United Nations General Assembly. And their collaborators include iconic authors, Nobel Prize winners, and filmmakers.

“Exciting things often happen at the intersection of fields,” says McGill.

McGill, who graduated Highest Honors in biology, art history, and music, and Park, a double major in English and music, were already exploring the intersection of fields while at Swarthmore. The seeds for the company were planted when McGill was a Ph.D. student at Harvard Medical School in the lab of David Fisher ’79 and Park was creating scientific animations in a chemistry lab at Harvard University.

“We noticed an opportunity to leverage the power of visual media to help scientists better communicate their work — not only to other scientists but the general public,” says Park.

Early on, they decided that the people creating visuals shouldn’t just collaborate with scientists; they should be scientists. They looked “planetwide” for dually trained scientist-artists, McGill says, and now Digizyme boasts a team based everywhere from Hollywood and Toronto to France and Australia. “We’ve been able to explore many areas, and create tools and resources for the community,” says McGill, who is also on the faculty and director of molecular visualization at Harvard Medical School and creator of the Molecular Maya software and Clarafi portal.

McGill and Park are now co-authoring How Sustainable Engineering Solutions Depend on Biodiversity with 1985 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. Eric Chivian, a project they recently presented at the U. N. General Assembly, among other venues. (For more information, visit Naturestoolkit.com).

Digizyme’s visualization work also supports actual scientific research. During the pandemic, McGill and team members created a dynamic model of how the coronavirus spike protein drives membrane fusion during infection, resulting in publication in Science and Science Advances. And their talents yielded a happier type of viral sensation: A cellular landscape the team created a decade earlier recently made its way onto social media and generated millions of hits. “That image symbolizes, in essence, what Digizyme does,” says Park. “Visualization is not just about creating images — it’s about integrating many different data into a comprehensive ‘big picture’ that is more engaging and intuitive for audiences.”

This knowledge synthesis is the most rewarding aspect of the work, according to McGill, who also studies how people learn from visual media through his federally funded research at Harvard Medical School. The couple feels deep gratitude for their formative years at Swarthmore. They believe their journey as entrepreneurs was born from the mentorship, support, and friendship they experienced with professors such as Isaac H. Clothier Professor Emerita of Biology Amy Vollmer, Executive Artistic Director of the Chester Children’s Chorus John Alston, and Scheuer Family Chair Emeritus of Humanities Michael Cothren.