• Question: who is the most famous scientist that you have met, that after you thought "wow"?

    Asked by E_kelleher to Francesca, Laura, Matthew, Andrew, Rebecca on 16 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Matthew Camilleri

      Matthew Camilleri answered on 16 Nov 2014:

      I don’t recall I’ve met any famous scientists, I have not had the opportunity to go to a conference yet, and those are the type of places you might actually meet important scientists.

    • Photo: Laura Schofield

      Laura Schofield answered on 17 Nov 2014:

      I didn’t think it was impressive when I met him, but a lot of people get excited when I tell them I work for Martyn Poliakoff, see him most days and have even been to his house!
      Other than that I’ve met Paul Anastas, who is my chemistry idol! I am rubbish when I meet famous people (or people that seem famous to me!!) so I just shook his hand, went bright red and mumbled something about being a fan…not my coolest moment by a long way!
      A couple of weeks ago I had another fangirl moment when I met Dan Eley. I imagine none of you will have heard of him, but he has an equation named after him that we learnt in our first year at Uni so that was quite a big deal. And to top it off, I met him at his 100th birthday party!!! (Yes there were 100 candles and yes they were put out with a fire extinguisher!!!)

    • Photo: Rebecca Ingle

      Rebecca Ingle answered on 17 Nov 2014:

      I’ve met two Nobel prizewinners, Harry Kroto (discovered C60 – buckminsterfullerene – the molecule that looks like a football) and Ahmed Zewail, who is one of the founding figures behind femtochemistry.

      Harry Kroto was great to chat with, very laid back and seemed really interested to hear from students. I think you always think of these very famous scientists as being really difficult to talk to and very unapproachable but they’re actually just normal people too.

    • Photo: Andrew McKinley

      Andrew McKinley answered on 17 Nov 2014:

      Have to agree with @Rebecca – Harry Kroto is cool – plus he really *really* cares about education and getting people into chemistry (hence why so many of us have met him!)

      I have the privilege of working in the same department as Professor David Philips (he has now retired, but he still pops around!). I don’t think many people outside chemistry will have heard of him – he was president of the Royal Society of Chemistry 2010-2012, and is a laser spectroscopist also. But he has had an amazing life, traveling the world, engaging people in science – in fact, he has been on Desert Island Discs (a Radio 4 programme) – I recommend you listen to it, because it is fascinating to listen to him talk about his life’s work.

    • Photo: Francesca Palombo

      Francesca Palombo answered on 17 Nov 2014:

      This happens to me at almost every conference – usually after the plenary lecture is like “wow, I would like to be him/her and impress the audience as much!”. Silly isn’t it?!

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