Innovators is a contemplative installation that honors the global history of scientific discovery. Situated along a pedestrian path at the Tarlton Menlo Park Labs Campus, the work brings together nine life-sized bronze figures representing pioneers whose ideas transformed medicine, chemistry, and our understanding of life itself.

The installation includes Al-Zahrawi and Avicenna of the Islamic Golden Age, whose medical texts shaped healthcare for centuries; Daniel Hale Williams, Charles Drew, and Percy Lavon Julian, whose breakthroughs advanced surgery, blood preservation, and life-saving pharmaceuticals; Marie Curie, whose research revealed the power of radioactivity; and DNA researchers Rosalind Franklin, Maurice Wilkins, and Francis Crick, whose work unlocked the structure of the molecule that carries the code of life.

Spanning nearly a millennium of scientific progress and representing diverse cultures and disciplines, these figures stand together not as isolated geniuses, but as part of a long continuum of shared knowledge. Their placement along a quiet walkway encourages pause and reflection, transforming a transitional space into an environment for learning and inspiration.

Cast in enduring bronze and scaled between five and six feet three inches tall, the sculptures create an approachable, human presence. Innovators celebrates the collaborative and cumulative nature of science — the reality that every advancement builds on the work of those who came before. By honoring these pioneers in a shared space, the installation connects past achievement with future possibility, inspiring the next generation of thinkers, makers, and problem-solvers.