Lucia Perez Diaz always needed a creative outlet. She studied music from an early age and played the piano through her teens. She was always the one to be scolded for doodling in class.
Wary that the hustle required by a professional career in music might be challenging and inspired by an influential Earth systems teacher, Perez Diaz chose a geology degree over a music degree when attending the Universidad de Oviedo in Spain. She then completed a master’s degree and Ph.D. in geodynamics at Royal Holloway, University of London, investigating the geologic formation and evolution of the South Atlantic Ocean.
But Perez Diaz never let go of her creative side. After years of producing intricate illustrations for her own presentations, a pandemic-era refocusing spurred her to grow her illustration business. Now she’s a published children’s book author: Her first book, How the Earth Works, hit the shelves earlier this year.
“Science is full of inspiring stories,” she said. “Art is a really great vehicle to tell them.”
Perez Diaz also works as a computational geodynamicist at Halliburton. Learning to program didn’t feel natural to Perez Diaz initially, and she required a lot of support from her peers. But the fact that she eventually succeeded and built a career using those skills motivated her to take on new, unfamiliar projects—like book publishing—with zeal.
“It’s rarely about having all the skills—it’s more about giving ourselves space to learn and time to get there.”
“People often ask me, ‘How did you manage to make a book?’” she said. “I’m like, ‘Honestly, because I thought, What’s the worst that could happen?’”
She hopes to use what she’s learned to help others explore their own creativity. She hosts workshops to show aspiring illustrators that creating art isn’t as daunting as it may seem. “Often we look at others’ achievements and they make us feel like we don’t have their talent or their skills,” she said. “It’s rarely about having all the skills—it’s more about giving ourselves space to learn and time to get there.”
—Grace van Deelen (@gvd.bsky.social), Staff Writer
This profile is part of a special series in our August 2025 issue on science careers.