Mia the Marvelous Lab Explorer: Using Children's Media to Inspire the Next Generation of Lab Leaders

Host David Ritter, MA is joined by Lotte Mulder, PhD and Kamran Mirza, MD, PhD, FASCP to discuss their new book, Mia the Marvelous Lab Explorer. The adventure follows Mia, a superhero and scientist, who uses laboratory science to explain why a friend has fallen ill with leukemia. The book targets children ages 5 to 9 years and balances striking entertaining and engaging tone with explaining scientific concepts accurately to a younger audience. Their conversation of the book expands into strategies for fostering engagement in laboratory science across age groups, how children’s literature can highlight the role of the lab to parents as well as younger readers, and how the format of a children's book fits into the undeclared student to laboratory professional pipeline ASCP is working to create. Additionally, there is currently a fundraiser underway to donate 1,000 copies of the book to pediatricians' offices, libraries, and schools under the hashtag #MissionMarvelous. If you would like to contribute to the fundraiser, you can do so here: miathemarvelous.com.  The fundraiser runs through February 16, 2026.