Proud to be part of LJMU,
in partnership with the Dill Faulkes Educational Trust

 

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Careers

Maggie Aderin-Pocock

Early Life

Maggie grew up in a working-class family in London, UK and wanted to be an astronaut but her teacher was not very encouraging. Maggie studied sciences and maths at school anyway. She went on to achieve a degree in physics and a PhD in mechanical engineering. She was not sure what to do when she left university. Maggie’s first job was working for the Ministry of Defence. She worked on systems to warn and protect aircraft from missiles and to detect landmines.

Year born: 1968

Research Areas: Mechanical Engineering, Satellites

 

"I like to try and translate some of the complexities of science into a simple format for everybody to understand."

Carl Sagan

Early Life

Carl Sagan grew up in Brooklyn, USA in a working-class family. Carl’s interest in astronomy began as a 5-year old child when he would visit the library to find books about stars. He loved science fiction books and became fascinated by extra-terrestrial life. As a teenager, he visited museums and science fairs, to learn as much as he could. He went to university aged 16, to study physics, alongside genetics, chemistry, and biology.

Year born: 1934

Research Areas: Extraterrestrial Life, Planetary Science

 

"Not explaining science seems to me perverse.
When you're in love, you want to tell the world."

Haida Liang

Early Life

Haida grew up in Shanghai, China but moved to Sydney, Australia to finish school. At first, she struggled to understand the Australian accent, despite speaking English. This meant that she enjoyed maths and physics classes most because the equations were universal. At university, she started a medical degree, as she thought if you got good grades that’s what you should study. She soon missed physics and maths and transferred to the physics department.

Research Areas: Imaging and Sensing, Conservation, Science and Art

 

"I’m working on the boundary between optical imaging and history… physics and history are the two things that I love."

Anthony Aveni

Early Life

Anthony grew up in West Haven, Connecticut in the USA and attended a poor inner-city school. He went to Boston University where he just passed his degree in physics. Anthony went on to study for a PhD at the University of Arizona, working on the new telescope at Kitt Peak. During this time, Anthony and his wife were struggling to get by, and so he started to look for jobs which earned more money. He managed to get a position at Colgate University and moved across the country to New York State.

Year born: 1938

Research Areas: Archaeoastronomy, Ancient Astronomy in the Americas, Mayans

 

Jarita Holbrook

 

Early Life

Jarita was born in Hawaii and grew up in California in the USA. They are from a family with strong academic links (both parents got science degrees) and Jarita decided to follow in their parents' footsteps and studied physics at Caltech. Jarita went on to get a PhD in astrophysics from the University of California, investigating star formation.

Year born: 1965

Research Areas: History, Cultural Studies of Astronomy, African Indigenous Astronomy

 

Allan Chapman

Early Life

Allan was born in Swinton, Lancashire in the north of England. As a child, he was always interested in tinkering and making things. He made his own telescope when he was 11 and used it to look at the Moon. He was from a working-class family and career options were limited. When he left school without qualifications, he was expected to start work in a local factory. Instead, Allan decided to get a job in a local library.

Year born: 1946

Research Areas: History of Science, History of Astronomy, Broadcasting

 

Stephen Hawking

Early Life

Stephen was born in 1942 in Oxford, UK during World War II. He decided that he wanted to study mathematics at university, but his father wanted him to choose medicine instead. He was accepted into University College Oxford but because they did not offer a degree in mathematics, Stephen chose to study physics. After three years (and, in his words, "not very much work"), he graduated with a first-class honours degree in natural sciences. From there, he went on to study cosmology at Cambridge University.

Year born: 1942

Research Areas: Cosmology, Theoretical Physics

 

"All my life, I have been fascinated by the big questions that face us, and have tried to find scientific answers to them."

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar

Early Life

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (known as Chandra) grew up in Lorhre, British India (now Pakistan). Chandra came from an academic family. His uncle was a physicist and Nobel Laureate and his mother loved learning. She encouraged young Chandra to be curious. His mother and father taught him at home until he was 12. Chandra got a BSc in physics in 1930 from Presidency College, Madras. He then won a scholarship to study for a postgraduate degree at Trinity College, University of Cambridge, UK. He received a PhD in 1933.

Year born: 1910

Research Areas: Stellar Evolution, Black Holes

 

"My motive has not been to solve a single problem, but to acquire a perspective of an entire area"