• Question: who are you inspired by?(science)

    Asked by laraij to Jen, Jill, Mel, Phil, Stef on 15 Mar 2013. This question was also asked by ossianbb.
    • Photo: Jennifer Paxton

      Jennifer Paxton answered on 15 Mar 2013:

      Good question! I think it is easy to say that you are inspired by lots of the more famous scientists (which of course is true) but mine are a little different. My supervisor during my masters project is a huge inspiration to me. She is a professor (the highest you can go in science!) and has had a very successful career, along with having a happy family life and surviving a serious illness – an amazing and inspirational woman!

      I’m also really inspired by Professor Alice Roberts (you might have seen her on the TV presenting stuff on prehistoric autopsy?). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Roberts She is professor of public engagement at my university which means that she looks at how we can communicate science to everyone – not just other scientists! I think this is a really important thing to do, which is partly why I took part in this event!

      Lastly, a woman called Professor Sue Black http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sue_Black_(forensic_anthropologist). An amazing woman and scientist. You might have seen her on the TV too? I was lucky enough to have her as my examiner for my PhD thesis. I was scared at first, but she was really lovely 🙂

    • Photo: Stefan Piatek

      Stefan Piatek answered on 15 Mar 2013:

      I’m most inspired by life itself, it’s so amazing that we have all of these processes going on inside of us and between us all the time.

      But as you want a person, I would say that what really inspired me for science was my A-level teacher, he was crazy for biology and had so many funny things that he did. In general he made me see just how fascinating biology is.

      If you want a famous scientist, I’d go for Charles Janeway, this guy basically had a look at how our body fight disease and way before we could even think of testing it he thought up ideas that now form the basis of how we think of our immune system (fighter cells)!

    • Photo: Phil Rice

      Phil Rice answered on 18 Mar 2013:

      This may or may not be popular but Richard Dawkins as he was the person who made me really understand evolution by natural selection; once you understand that you can begin to get to grips with Biological science. And Charles Darwin – he was a very brave man to go against the accepted wisom of religious belief when he published Origin of Species.

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