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Asked by ryanevans429 to Alice JB, Andy, Barbara, James, Jo on 22 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by samiimarie.
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Barbara Guinn answered on 16 Jun 2011:
My off-beat favourite is Jules Verne who was a science writer born in France in 1828. He described space and underwater travel before rockets and submarines and airships (blimps) had been invented. He is called the father of science fiction writing.
Otherwise it is Gregor Mendel who did worked on 28,000 pea plants to show that a single gene coded for a single trait such as flower colour, pea pod colour, pea pod shape etc. He was the first person to show there were genes and he was an Austrian Monk born in 1822. He was called the father of genetics and genetics is the subject I learnt at University, so he is my hero too. I’d love to go to Austria to see the monastry where he worked.
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Andy Norton answered on 16 Jun 2011:
Wow, crikey, that’s a tough question! I think that Richard Feynman ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman ) was brilliant. Not only was he a fantastic physicist and did some great things in physics, but he was also such a character and sort of helped to dispel the myth that science is just for geeky, stuffy old men – in fact, anyone can do science if they are keen and work hard.
In terms of my favourite scientist in my research field (of ceramics) – Griffith was so influential in terms of fracture mechanics of various materials ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Arnold_Griffith ). Even before the age of computers, he was able to do some excellent work on modelling the behaviour of cracks and how they grow. His work in the 1930s is still important and being taught today!
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Alice Jones Bartoli answered on 16 Jun 2011:
I love Rosalind Franklin, she did some very important work which helped lead to the discovery of the structure of DNA, but she also worked at a time when being a female scientist wasn’t a very normal thing. She wasn’t treated terribly well by some of the other scientists that she worked with, but she was determined and brilliant. She also died before she was 40 – an incredible amount of important work done in a short life.
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James Jennings answered on 22 Jun 2011:
I really like Steven Hawking, who has come up with some fantastic theories about how the universe may have begun, a very important question I’m sure you’ll agree!
There is a professor in my university named Martyn Poliakoff, and he has done alot of science communication through youtube videos. You can see all the videos at this link- he’s the one with the crazy hair! http://www.youtube.com/user/periodicvideos?ob=5. They cover many topics, mostly chemistry and element related, and are actually alot of fun too!
He is very good at explaining science to a non-scientist audience, which is a very important skill. I’m learning the skill through this event!
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