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The astrophysicist turned social activist sits down with Hadley Stewart to discuss the invisible rainbow in science and innovation.
When Dr Alfredo Carpineti first came to London with his parents at the age of nine, he convinced them that, instead of visiting the Victoria and Albert Museum, they should divert to the neighbouring Natural History Museum. Carpineti, who was born and raised in the Italian coastal town of Anzio, south of Rome, wanted to feed his childhood obsession with dinosaurs. In the museum, they came across a panel discussing the different ways dinosaurs had become extinct.
“It was the early nineties,” recalls Carpineti now. “So we didn’t know for sure.” His inquisitive mind, however, prompted him to ask his father to look up in an encyclopaedia one of the terms described as part of the exhibition: a supernova. It all sounded rather complicated for a nine-year-old child to understand, so he asked for a book about space.
Reading this book would be a return to Carpineti’s seemingly innate passion. When he was a baby his mother would write down notes about him in a small book. “One thing that always struck me,” he tells me when he read the book as an adult, “there is a line about what I was apparently obsessed with… Whenever we were outside, I would reach for the stars.” He laughs about this today, saying that he is grateful to his mother for providing him with the perfect anecdote for an astrophysicist. Following a book about space, his fate was sealed when a few months later his parents bought him a small telescope for his holy communion. “Then I became really obsessed!”
London plays an important role in the story of Carpineti’s life. Having been the place that sparked something inside him to learn more about science and space, he would later return to the British capital during an Erasmus year as part of his degree in Physics and Astrophysics at La Sapienza in Rome. “It coincided with me coming out,” he says of his time studying abroad in London. “Finally, it felt like I could be myself here.” Did he feel unable to be himself in his hometown? “Yeah, I couldn’t be myself. Everyone knows my family and who I am. It’s a small, very Christian, very conservative town.”
Carpineti left Rome and went on to pursue a master’s in Quantum Fields and Fundamental Forces and a PhD in Astrophysics, both at Imperial College London. Studying aside, he also found time to fall in love. In fact, for the first date with his now husband, Carpineti decided that the pair should go to the Natural History Museum. “It’s my favourite museum in the whole world,” he says.
The couple would later get married at the museum in 2017. As for Carpineti’s conservative hometown? “When Chris and I got married for the second time back there, so many people in the streets stopped us to congratulate us,” he beams. “No one had any problem with anyone whatsoever.”
Today, Carpineti is an astrophysicist, journalist, science communicator, and social activist, whose motivation to share his passion for space with others comes across instantly. Is that why he opted for a career in journalism and science communication, I venture. “I think it’s clear by now that I have no filter,” he jests. “I always had a passion to talk about science, mostly because, well, I love to talk.” He tells me that he is invariably telling people about things that excite him in his field, encouraging them to get excited too.
Passion is one thing, he explains to me, but the art of science communication is something that Carpineti has crafted over many years. “Anyone can be excited and talk about things,” he says. “That’s the part I find easy.” A self-described extrovert, Carpineti credits the fact that he always said yes to doing things whilst at university, such as speaking at public events and science conferences. Carpineti even spent time in the halls of the Palace of Westminster stopping passing MPs to share with them his passion for astrophysics. Was he nervous speaking to them about science, someone asked him at the time. “I didn’t really know who any of the MPs were,” he shrugs, as he recalls it now. “I’d only recently moved to the UK then.”
As well as being a passionate speaker, Carpineti’s abilities as a journalist are equally noteworthy. As the Space and Physics Editor at IFLScience, a UK-based science website that is dedicated to demystifying the world of science, he covers astronomy, physics, and technology stories. He also appears in the publication’s video content and co-hosts its podcast, The Big Questions.
In 2016, Carpineti co-founded Pride in STEM alongside Chris Carpineti (his husband) and Dr Matthew Young. So how did he go from science communication to social activism? “It has a lot more to do with communication than one might think,” he replies. Having graduated from his masters, he decided to embark on a PhD, but was having what he describes as a “not extremely enjoyable experience” during his first year. Perhaps, Carpineti thought to himself, he ought to be doing something in social activism, applying the skills he had developed through science communication. “But then I got a better PhD project after our first year, and I was much happier. So I focus on the PhD instead.”
The thought of social activism was still at the back of his mind, though. So when the application deadline for Pride in London came around, Carpineti thought about putting together a group of LGBTQ+ scientists to march in the parade, reaching out to people on Facebook to join them for what would be the genesis of Pride in STEM. Then, he was contacted by the National Physical Laboratory asking for his support with setting up an LGBTQ+ network. It was the sign that indicated to him that there was a need for a group that brought together LGBTQ+ people from across different disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
With his science communication hat on, Carpineti organised an event with LGBTQ+ speakers working in STEM above a bar for Pride month. He was expecting 18 people from those who had replied to his Facebook event invite, but 56 people turned up instead. “It was a fire hazard!” he recalls now, with the only reason the bar manager gave for not closing down the event was due to it being so engaging.
Celebrating a decade of work in April this year, Pride in STEM is now a charity that showcases and supports LGBTQ+ people in STEM. “We’ve had over 150 speakers for all our events, and it’s been probably more at this point. It’s been a great journey,” says Carpineti. In addition to running local community events, Pride in STEM has transformed policy and helped to promote international visibility of LGBTQ+ people working in STEM. The charity is also one of the organisations that started and continues to spearhead the International Day of LGBTQ+ people in STEM, which is celebrated annually on 18 November.
Looking back on the work of the charity to date, Carpineti tells me he is particularly proud of Pride in STEM’s ability to support LGBTQ+ people working in the sector with small grants. “We thought it was important for us to invest money back into the community,” Carpineti says of the scheme, which provides £1000 grants to UK-based projects, ranging from accessibility and science in sports, to improving healthcare resources for trans and non binary patients.
The need for positive LGBTQ+ representation in the field of STEM is undeniable, argues Carpineti. “There is so much evidence that more inclusive organisations are better organisations.” As well as creating a positive environment for employees, he also believes that there is an economic argument for businesses. “I hate discussing it in a very purely capitalistic way, but it is an extreme waste of money,” he says. “Because in an environment in which people don’t feel valued, or if they feel at risk of bullying, or if they experience harassment and bullying, people leave.”
In a climate where some companies are choosing to abandon equality, diversity and inclusion efforts despite such evidence in favour of it, Carpineti argues that more could be done: “They need to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to diversity and inclusion.”
The theme of this year’s LGBT+ History Month is science and innovation. Having spent much of his career championing for positive queer and trans representation in his field and beyond, I ask Carpineti about his reaction when he first heard about this. “I thought it was brilliant!” he replies. “I’m excited to see how people engage with it and the impact it will have on people working in STEM.”
He agrees that amongst the general public well-known LGBTQ+ figures in the field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics can be hard to name. Alan Turing, British mathematician and computer scientist, perhaps springs to the minds of many for his pioneering contribution during the Second World War. Turning was subsequently arrested and convicted of gross indecency in 1952, at a time when homosexuality was illegal in England and Wales, and faced imprisonment and chemical castration. Turing received an official posthumous apology in 2009 from prime minister Gordon Brown.
“I feel when it comes to historic figures, there are limitations when it comes to certain fields of STEM,” says Carpineti, highlighting that queer and and trans people who faced discrimination would not have necessarily felt able to express themselves freely and publicly. “There is, let’s say, speculation about some people, but we do not know for sure. That is why representation is so important right now.”
This year’s theme is taking place against a backdrop of distrust in science, I remark. What does Carpineti make of those who say that scientists are liars and mislead the public? “Oh, people love their little lies,” he says, adding that this is why he believes in the importance of science communication as a means of explaining science in the context of its limitations. “If we don’t take people along for the journey to explain that this is our best understanding of something then that’s the issue… It might not be correct, we might find something that proves it wrong, but this is our best understanding.”
Carpineti also acknowledges that attacks against scientists are not only coming from people on social media; politicians have also been guilty of spreading misinformation about science. President Donald Trump during the Covid-19 pandemic, being a prime example of this. “I would be the first to admit that science communicators needed to do better in explaining things,” he reasons. During the pandemic, for instance, he points to how advice to the public was initially frequently changing, yet this was due to developments in scientific discovery and evidence. “It’s just like science is about the best current understanding, and it’s a tool. When people say that science is not the truth and it’s all made up? No, science is the current best understanding and a tool to get closer to the truth.”
His success as a science communicator, it seems to me, is that he is always thinking about ways to explain his field to a wide range of audiences. A book, therefore, seems like a logical next stage in Carpineti’s career. Invisible Rainbows reveals the extraordinary hidden universe beyond the limits of human vision, and will be published in May 2026. In keeping with his drive as a social activist, the book features conversations with LGBTQ+ astronomers and scientists from around the world, bringing to light their pivotal contribution to the evolving field of astronomy.
“When I started writing the book, I knew that I didn’t want to write it just for me,” he says of the importance of LGBTQ+ representation in Invisible Rainbows. “I wanted to find people who were working at the cutting edge of science… It’s so exciting and I feel extremely grateful to be able to give them a little place to show off.”
Dr Alfredo Carpineti is an astrophysicist, journalist, science communicator, and social activist. He is also the chair and founder of Pride in STEM, and author of forthcoming book Invisible Rainbows, which will be published in May 2026. Featured on Vada’s latest digital cover for LGBT+ History Month, he is photographed by Rajan Wadhera.
