College News
Mansfield Professor to play key role in new research hub to tackle challenges in quantum technologies
26 Jul 2024
26 November was our inaugural Jocelyn Bell Burnell Lecture in Science. We were treated to a humorous, insightful and honest talk by British space scientist, science educator, presenter of the BBC’s Sky at Night and Mansfield Honorary Fellow: Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock MBE. It featured VLT – Very Large Telescopes and ELT Extraordinarily Large Telescopes, Star Trek and the Clangers. But moreover it spoke to Mansfield’s own vision and commitment of openness, as she talked about busting myths about careers in science, class, and gender.
This new lecture series was established to honour Mansfield’s Professorial Fellow Jocelyn Bell Burnell. Jocelyn discovered pulsars – the dead remnants of massive stars left behind after the supernova explosions that ended their lives – as a graduate student at the University of Cambridge. You can read more about her story, how she was wrongly not awarded a noble prize and why we established a new lecture in her honour here.
It was very apt that our first lecture in Science to celebrate and honour a trailblazing woman in science was given by another hugely inspiring woman who is breaking new ground in astrophysics – British space scientist, science educator, presenter of the BBC’s Sky at Night and Mansfield Honorary Fellow: Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock MBE.
Maggie’s humorous and sincere talk was entitled Reaching for the Stars and focussed on her own potential barriers to success in science growing up – living in a council flat, moving schools over 13 times, being dyslexic, being a black woman – and how she, with the support of some great teachers and a lot of hard work, had overcome them. It featured VLT – Very Large Telescopes and ELT Extraordinarily Large Telescopes, Star Trek and the Clangers. But moreover it spoke to Mansfield’s own vision and commitment of openness, as she talked about busting myths about careers in science, class, and gender.
It really was a treat to have two such inspiring women in science at Mansfield’s auditorium. The Jocelyn Bell Burnell Lecture in Science will be held each November to mark Jocelyn’s discovery of pulsars on 28 November 1967.
Photo credit: Keiko Ikeuchi
