Seven scientists are entering the US Congress next year, from engineers and health professionals to an energy businessman and a computer programmer. Five of them are women, including a new senator for Nevada. All are Democrats.

Dr Rush Holt, a physicist who represented New Jersey in Congress and is now CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said the newcomers will likely never use their specific expertise but will contribute a much-needed way of thinking.

“What is missing in Congress, and what they are better able to provide, is the science perspective. There are so many issues that have the science embedded in them,” Holt said.

Illinois Democrat representative Bill Foster, one the few current lawmakers who studied and practiced science, said there is an urgent need for lawmakers with a science background.

“There’s hardly any issue that we touch that doesn’t have a technological edge to it, whether you’re talking about the feasibility of an electronic border wall or almost anything to do with military these days … or really the impact on the future of work that you’ll see from the increase in the capability of software,” said Foster, a particle physicist before he was elected to Congress in 2008.

Foster is a member of the House science committee, which will now be controlled by Democrats in the majority. Lamar Smith, the Texas Republican who has chaired the committee and vehemently denies man-made climate change, is retiring.

Caroline Weinberg, a co-chair of the March for Science rallies in 2017, said “the same way that we saw more women and more people of color and more LGBTQ people running for office because they felt unrepresented in the federal government, scientists ran for the same reason”.

Another 12 people with science credentials ran for office but were defeated. Here are the candidates who won:

A biochemist

Sean Casten, Illinois’ sixth district

Casten co-founded a company that captures waste energy to reduce pollution and is president of another corporation that manufactures combined heat and power plants.

He has degrees in molecular biology and biochemistry and engineering management. Casten frequently criticized Donald Trump.

Three engineers

Elaine Luria, Virginia’s second district

Luria was a nuclear engineer and US Navy commander who spent two decades operating reactors and overseeing weapons systems. As a surface warfare office, she launched jets off the deck of an aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean to take down terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the group 314 Action, which supports scientists running for office.

Chrissy Houlahan, Pennsylvania’s sixth district

Houlahan was also in the military, in the US air force. She has an engineering degree from Stanford and a masters degree in technology and policy from MIT. Houlahan was a science teacher in north Philadelphia.

Joe Cunningham, South Carolina’s first district

Cunningham is an ocean engineer who has worked in designing, permitting and overseeing construction of marina and coastline development. He also has a law degree. Cunningham believes climate change is the “single greatest non-military threat to our nation”, according to environmental group 314 Action. Cunningham flipped a historically Republican seat after incumbent representative Mark Sanford lost to a challenger in the primary.

Cunningham told CNN opposing offshore drilling was his winning issue.

Two healthcare professionals

Lauren Underwood, Illinois’ 14th district

Underwood is a 32-year-old registered nurse who was appointed by former president Barack Obama as senior adviser to the department of health and human services, where she helped implement his signature health care law. She has said her experience with her own heart condition, discovered as a child, inspired her career. She is an African American woman who won a district that is 86% white, the Chicago Tribune noted.

Kim Schrier, Washington’s eighth district

Schrier is a pediatrician who campaigned on affordable healthcare. She, too, was diagnosed with a health condition in her youth, Type 1 diabetes.

A computer engineer

Jacky Rosen, Nevada

Representative Jacky Rosen, a computer programmer and software engineer, unseated Republican senator Dean Heller. She campaigned on healthcare and immigration.