Today is the last day of October and of Black History Month. I hope you have enjoyed my series of portraits of people of colour with a place in the history of the United Kingdom.

My last entry is Maggie Aderin-Pocock – a personal heroine of mine for smashing through multiple glass ceilings to achieve in her chosen field.

Margaret Aderin-Pocock MBE is a British space scientist and science educator. She is an honorary research associate of University College London’s Department of Physics and Astronomy. She has co-presented the long-running astronomy television programme The Sky at Night, and this year was awarded the Institute of Physics William Thomson, Lord Kelvin Medal and Prize for her public engagement in physics.

Born in 1968 to Nigerian parents, Aderin-Pocock was raised in Camden, and attended La Sainte Union Convent School in North London. She has dyslexia. My favourite story about her is that as a child, when she told a teacher she wanted to be an astronaut, it was suggested she become a nurse, ‘because that’s science, too’.

She gained four A-Levels in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology, graduated with a BSc in physics from Imperial College London, and completed her PhD in mechanical engineering in 1994.

Aderin-Pocock has worked on many projects in private industry, academia, and in government – as a systems scientist on aircraft missile warning systems, as a project manager developing hand-held instruments to detect landmines, and back at Imperial College working on a high-resolution spectrograph for the Gemini telescope in Chile.

She was the lead scientist at Astrium, where she managed observation instruments on a satellite measuring wind speeds, and is working on and managing the observation instruments for the Aeolus satellite which will measure wind speeds to help the investigation of climate change. She is also a pioneering figure in communicating science to the public, and also runs her own company, Science Innovation Ltd, which engages children and adults all over the world with the wonders of space science.

She has spoken to approximately 25,000 children, many of them at inner-city schools, telling them how and why she became a scientist. She also helps encourage young people into science by being a celebrity judge at the National Science + Engineering Competition.

Aderin-Pocock was the scientific consultant for the 2009 mini-series Paradox, and also appeared on Doctor Who Confidential. She has also presented Do We Really Need the Moon? (2011) and In Orbit: How Satellites Rule Our World (2012) on BBC Two.

As well as presenting The Sky at Night Aderin-Pocock has presented Stargazing on CBeebies with Chris Jarvis, and Out of this World on CBBC with her daughter Lauren. She has also appeared on Would I Lie to You, Dara O’Briain’s Go 8 Bit, and Richard Osman’s House of Games.

Since 2006, Aderin-Pocock has been a research fellow at UCL Department of Science and Technology Studies. She has previously held other fellowships related to science communication, and in 2006 she was one of six “Women of Outstanding Achievement” winners with GetSET Women. She is an honorary research associate of University College London’s Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Despite her impressive record of achievement, Aderin-Pocock has not been immune from claims that she has been selected for appearances because of her gender and ethnicity rather than her ability. The right-wing Ephraim Hardcastle diary column in the Daily Mail claimed that she and BAME astro-physicist Hiranya Peiris had been chosen to discuss an experiment on BBC Newsnight for these reasons – comments condemned by the Royal Astronomical Society and University College London among others, forcing the publication to back down.

We still have a long way to go in addressing prejudice and discrimination against people of colour.

More about Maggie Aderin-Pocock at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggie_Aderin-Pocock