BBC Sky at Night presenter, Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, MBE, is this year’s presenter of the Thornton Science Park International Women’s Day lecture.

Every year, the University of Chester’s Faculty of Science and Engineering presents an International Women’s Day lecture at Thornton Science Park. Last year’s guest speaker was award winning science journalist, broadcaster and author, Angela Saini.

Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock MBE is a space scientist whose passion is presenting science to a general audience and demonstrating that you ‘don’t need a brain the size of a small planet’ to understand, participate in and enjoy science. Her BBC 2 programme, Do We Really Need the Moon? showed just that. The programme earned Maggie the Talkback Thames New Talent Award at the prestigious Women in Film and TV Awards in December 2011. She went on to present Do We Really Need Satellites? and was one of the main scientists on Channel 4’s Brave New World. She is currently presenting Sky at Night on BBC 4, Mini Stargazing for CBeebies and is a panellist on Sky One’s successful science quiz show, Ducks Quack Don’t Echo. She also makes regular appearances on The One Show, Newsnight and Woman’s Hour and was a guest on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs.

Her book The Sky at Night’s Book of the Moon (BBC Books) was published in September 2018 and her children’s book Dr Maggie’s Grand Tour of the Solar System (Michael O’Mara) is out now. Maggie studied at Imperial College where she obtained her degree in Physics and her PhD in Mechanical Engineering. Since then she has spent much of her career making novel, bespoke instrumentation ranging from hand-held land mine detectors to an optical subsystem for the James Webb Space Telescope.

To further share her love of science, Maggie conducts ‘Tours of the Universe’ and other public engagement activities, showing school children and adults around the world the wonders of space.

Angela Lupton, Higher Education STEM Co-ordinator in the Faculty of Science and Engineering, said: “Each year, we celebrate International Women’s Day at Thornton, to mark women in science – and with the aim of inspiring, and engaging with, the next generation of female scientists. Who better to inspire us all than Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock? We are delighted to welcome her to Thornton Science Park – and are very much looking forward to hearing her lecture. All are welcome – so please come along to this free event!”

Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock’s lecture takes place on Wednesday, March 4, in the Backford Building at Thornton Science Park. Refreshments are available between 6pm and 6.30pm. The lecture begins at 6.30pm.

There is also a daytime lecture at 1.15pm, which is also open to members of the public.

To book a place please contact: Angela Lupton: a.lupton@chester.ac.uk or visit: //www1.chester.ac.uk/international-womens-day-dr-maggie-aderin-pocock/register