By Audrey Thompson, for Nature
The space scientist and broadcaster describes how she deals with racism,
taps dyslexia’s hidden powers and
inspires disadvantaged students to pursue science careers.
taps dyslexia’s hidden powers and
inspires disadvantaged students to pursue science careers.
| Credit: Steven May/Alamy (nature.com) |
Maggie Aderin-Pocock is the most famous Black female scientist in the United Kingdom. She has co-hosted the BBC’s long-running astronomy television programme The Sky at Night since 2014, and earned a BAFTA nomination (from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts) for her work on the children’s programme Stargazing in 2016.
She studied at Imperial College London, obtaining a bachelor’s degree in physics in 1990 and a PhD in mechanical engineering in 1994. She has worked on many space-technology projects, notably on a number of satellites to monitor climate change and on NIRSpec, one of four scientific instruments on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) that allow it to survey extremely distant galaxies.
Over the past 20 years, Aderin-Pocock has also focused on science communication, encouraging under-represented groups to enter science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers. So far, she has given talks to more than 500,000 people globally.
Read more at
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02303-x