We are delighted to announce that Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock will be the subject of our next module, Wisdom.
Margaret Ebunoluwa Aderin-Pocock MBE is a British space scientist and science educator. She studied at Imperial College London, graduating with a BSc in physics in 1990 and completed her PhD in mechanical engineering in 1994. She has spent her career to date making novel, bespoke instrumentation in both the industrial and academic environments. These have ranged from hand held land mine detectors to optical sub-systems for the James Webb Space Telescope. Until recently Aderin-Pocock worked at Astrium Ltd in Portsmouth where she led the optical instrumentation group. Whilst there she managed a range of projects which included making satellite sub-systems to measure wind speeds in the Earth’s atmosphere. This system was designed to improve our current knowledge of climate change.
Maggie had a science in society fellowship held at UCL from the Science and Technology Facilities Council which enabled her to present her science ideas to a wide range of listeners from school children to politicians.
To further share her passion for science, Maggie set up and runs her own company ‘Science Innovation Ltd’. Through this she conducts public engagement activities sharing the wonders of space. To date Maggie has given these presentations to over 250,000 people around the world. As well as public speaking she also works as a TV presenter and since February 2014 she has co-hosted the world’s longest running television series “The Sky at Night”. In 2009, she was awarded an MBE for services to science and education.