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Professor Maggie Aderin-Pocock
Inspirational Teacher, Science Communicator and Role Model
Who do you think you are?
I define myself as a Scientist, first and foremost. Also as a Communicator, but that came much later. As a Scientist I have a brilliant job, I travel the world. Science can change peoples' lives - we can save peoples' lives! That's one of my lifelong aspirations; to communicate my passion to others.
I like going into Inner City schools. What I love is going into schools and the teacher will say, "OK that's Bill, he won't listen..." Bill will be kicking someone at the back; slowly but surely, he'll come to the front and often he'll be the first one to volunteer. Then you know you've got them and that is magical - I live for that.
The best thing that happened to me was at a mixed ability school which included some deaf children, one of whom was a voluntary mute. In the middle of my talk he suddenly started asking his teacher questions, "What happens if two universes collide?" To think the universe can inspire so much!
I so enjoy giving the talks, it's what I love.
 | | A visit to a special needs school, with a child who was an elective mute |
A visit to a special needs school, with a child who was an elective mute from chris trainers on Vimeo.
Your ultimate thing you've wanted to achieve?
To go into Space. My ultimate dream, both as a Scientist and as an individual, is to go and live on Mars, hopefully to return, but to retire to Mars. For me it's the ultimate dream because you'd go to a brand new planet, and investigate; discover amazing things. I love planet Earth, I think planet Earth is an amazing place, but there are other amazing places out there, and I'd like to get out and see them.
How did you get started?
I was born in the late '60s and I think Space was in the air; in '57 we had Sputnik which was the catalyst for space exploration. However, when I was at school, I hated reading; I'm a dyslexic.
I saw this beautiful book with an astronaut on the cover. I thought, "That's what I want to do; I want to be an astronaut. I want to go out into Space."
I was just born when the moon landings occurred, and I was growing up in an era when people were walking on the moon.
I was watching Star Trek, I love science fiction. It just seemed like an actual thing, I thought, "If they're doing it, why not me?"
Also, strangely, while I was growing up I felt a little isolated. I grew up in a very white society; being black made it difficult to fit in and, to me, Space gave me that global feel. In space, race almost disappears! That's what I loved about it, it felt uniting; and also Star Trek was a multi-cultural team working against the aliens!
Current role models:
Dame Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell - I've met her a few times and had the privilege to work with her. She is just so relaxed, she doesn't blow her own trumpet; she is brilliant. She's aware that she is very good, but she takes it in her stride. I think that's fantastic.
She has an inner calm; she's quite different from me, I'm quite manic! I've seen her give talks; my talks are sort of loud, and her talks are very measured. I appreciate that style and admire it.
Marie Curie - I think that any person who can win 2 Nobel Peace Prizes during that time is incredible. I went to an event, finding out more about her life. She was quite passionate; she fell in love with people. It's funny, because it brought her to life. I think she had 2 or 3 children and to raise them whilst making machines to take out to war zones, along with everything else, is just amazing. An amazing life. At the same time I think she suffered from depression, so she was a real person.
That's one of my problems with role models, sometimes you just see the glory, but you don't relate to the real person behind it. I think it's the real person that makes a real role model.
Which part of your life was most memorable to you, and why?
There was a period when I was working on a telescope in South America. We'd built this instrument, which was a troublesome instrument to build. What I didn't realize, before I took the project on, was they'd had 8 Project Managers before me, and so I was the 9th manager!
The project was fraught with difficulties; it was almost shut down a number of times. We packed it up into 26 boxes, got people to ship it out and I had to go out to Chile completely alone, to meet the boxes and spend 6 months putting the telescope together.
To read more extracts from the interview go to the archive.
©2012 Christina@wwom.org
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name for the Medical Foundation; about building and re-building ruined lives.