ABOUT THIS EPISODE
On this episode of The Emergence Room, we had the pleasure of talking with Adam Summers, scientist, educator, explorer, and 2026 Rome Prize Fellow in Environmental Arts & Humanities at the American Academy in Rome. Adam can almost always be found somewhere around the Academy wearing one of his now iconic fish shirts, which at this point feel less like clothing and more like a long-running conceptual art piece disguised as field biology.
Our conversation moved through some wonderfully unexpected territory: flying airplanes, 3D printing, fish anatomy, poetry workshops, childhood homes, memory, collaboration, privilege, and curiosity itself. Adam reflected on how the home he grew up in shaped his understanding of the world and spoke candidly about recognizing his own privilege and the importance of sharing access, resources, and knowledge with others through his lab and collaborative work.
We also talked about poetry and the surprising intersections between scientific inquiry and creative practice. Adam shared stories about taking poetry classes and being pushed to write poems, embracing uncertainty and metaphor in ways that expanded how he thinks about observation and discovery.
Listeners may also recognize Adam as the collaborator of poet Katharine Ogle, whose episode recently aired on The Emergence Room. Their collaborative project, Piscis Romana, merges poetry, ecology, Roman history, and marine biology into a playful and deeply thoughtful exploration of fish and fishlike forms throughout the city of Rome.
This episode felt expansive, generous, funny, and slightly delightfully unhinged in the best way. Adam has the energy of someone perpetually wandering toward an interesting idea just to see what might happen there next.
