• Question: Whos your fav scientist?

    Asked by spoderman1 to Catherine, Charlotte, Colin, Becki, Rick on 17 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Rebecca Scott

      Rebecca Scott answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      There are so many people I could say, who have all been amazing and inspirational. I think my real favourite scientist would have to be Martin Aitken. He was one of the founders of archaeometry and was a real pioneer in the field. He invented the 1st gradiometer (a machine which measures the changes in the Earth’s magnetic field and tells you if there is a wall/pit under the ground without the need for excavation). He defined the use of physics in archaeology and really was one of the 1st to show how science could be successfully used to analyse archaeological material. I had the privilege of meeting him at a conference and he was so sweet and really enthusiastic about archaeological science. I found his personality and enthusiasm really infectious 🙂

    • Photo: Colin Swift

      Colin Swift answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      Hi, Another tricky question there’s so many, Michael Faraday probably, for his contributions in the field of electricity and magnetism which make up such a lot of today’s technology. Of people I’ve met, my old supervisor at Strathclyde University – Brian Culshaw – as he was really clever but also down to earth. Possibly the cleverest person I’ve had the privilege to work with. I must mention Theodore Maiman who invented the laser….I guess without him my career would have been totally different!

    • Photo: Catherine Fontinelle

      Catherine Fontinelle answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      Hi spoderman1, I guess my favourite scientist would be one of the tv greats that I grew up with.
      Robert Winston is really engaging, the Christmas Science Lectures that were televised always inspired me – so I guess it’s more the group of scientists that I was exposed to, rather than just one.

    • Photo: Charlotte Dalton

      Charlotte Dalton answered on 18 Jun 2013:

      There are a lot to choose from! I think John Dalton (sadly no relation) would have to be my favourite as he kick-started chemistry as we know it know with the theory of atoms

    • Photo: Rick Smith

      Rick Smith answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      A really tough question and I am sorry but I one I can’t answer with one scientist. I think if I had to try and narrow it down I would say the pioneers of quantum mechanics. During the first half on the last century, just when new discoveries in physics were slowing down, suddenly these people opened up a new window on the world at an incredibly small level. They showed us just how strange and unbelievable the universe we live in really is.

      For me these guys were really the heroes of physics, and amazingly they all met up and worked together, I don’t know if I can post a link here but there is a picture of all of these pioneers together. If I have a favorite scientist, it is someone in this picture. (Just a few of them: Einstein, Dirac, Pauli, Planck, Schrodinger, Heisenberg, Bohr…)

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solvay_Conference

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