Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock was born March 1968 in London. She was brought up in an education system that caused her to believe her dyslexia would prevent her from studying space or having any sort of career at all. Fortunately we now know a lot more about Dyslexia!
She was hooked on the children’s programme the Clangers from a young age and wanted to go into space and visit them. She also followed the US space programme which lead to the first manned spacecraft to land on the moon. All these things had an influence on her growing up. When Maggie discovered science at school and through her parents she realised she needed to work hard to get where she wanted to be.
After studying physics at Imperial College London and moving on to complete her Phd in mechanical engineering, she began her career working for the MOD making defence satellites. Her career in space science continued to grow whilst her interests in communicating the intricacies and amazing opportunities science offers to the general public also took off. She found she was offered more tv appearances and now also presents the BBC programme the sky at night.
She has a list as long as your arm of various awards, and was honoured with an MBE in 2009 for her services to science education in the Queens New Years Honours list.
The message we get from reading about Maggie is that if she can do it, so can you!! Think science isn’t for you? Maybe you should think again. These days there are lots of organisations who focus on encouraging more girls to get into science such as the WISE Campaign, Science: Its a girl thing and Next Gen Stemm. So maybe check it out and you never know where it could take you : )
We found the best way to learn about Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock is to watch this TEDx talk she recently presented. She is truly captivating as she discusses why watching Big Brother on Mars is the next logical step to commercialising space travel and making it affordable for everyone in the future.
Truly out of this world!!
