Careers

Early Life

Tana grew up in Cape Town, South Africa as the daughter of two science teachers.  When she was 11 years old, the newspaper printed images from the Hubble Space Telescope on their front page. The pictures inspired Tana to become an astronomer. She went on to study physics and astronomy at university. After receiving a scholarship, she gained her PhD in the UK in 2013.

Early Life

Samuel was born in Umuahia, Nigeria. His father died when he was ten years old. Samuel won a scholarship to study physics at University College in Ibadan, Nigeria. The university was linked to the University of London, UK. He got a paid fellowship to study for his PhD in astrophysics at the University of Cambridge, UK.

Early Life

Wanda was born in Gurabo, Puerto Rico. She used to play games, pretending to fly a spacecraft to another galaxy. Wanda won a prize at a school science fair. This experience made her feel like she could pursue a career in science.

Wanda started to lose her sight when she was a teenager. She lost her sight completely while studying for a degree in physics at the University of Puerto Rico. Wanda decided to keep studying at university, although it was difficult. She repeated classes until she got her degree. It took her six years.

Early Life

Carlos was born in Mexico. He is the son of a German-Jewish immigrant father and a Mexican-Spanish mother. Half of Carlos’ family are musicians, the other half are doctors. Carlos was interested in maths and nature when he was young. He did not feel that music or medicine would suit him. Carlos has an undergraduate degree in physics from the University of Mexico. He started off studying engineering. He switched to physics when he realised that he was more interested in “why things work?” than “how?”.

Early Life

Anna grew up in Cheshire, UK. She has an undergraduate masters’ degree in Physics from the University of Bristol. Anna studied for a PhD in astrophysics at the University of Cambridge. There, she got hooked on astronomy. This was the first time she had the chance to work with a radio telescope.

Early Life

Alan was born in London, UK. From a young age he was interested in codes and ciphers and spent lots of time creating and solving puzzles. He studied mathematics at the University of Cambridge and got a PhD in mathematical logic from Princeton University.

Early Life

Masatoshi was born in Toyohashi, Japan. His dad was in the Japanese army and served in China during World War II. His mum died when he was just three years old. As his father was an officer in the army, Masatoshi was expected to go to military school. A month before the entrance exam he contracted polio which left him very weak, and he was unable to join. He went to school in Tokyo during World War II when frequent bombing devastated the city. He only became interested in physics when one of his teachers doubted him.

Early Life

John Johnson grew up in St Louis, USA. He has a Bachelor's degree in Physics from the University of Missouri-Rolla and a PhD in Astronomy from the University of California, Berkeley. John’s interest in astronomy was sparked when he saw the Perseids meteor shower. He was 21 at the time and did not take any astronomy courses before he started his PhD. John did not have a lot of confidence when he started studying astronomy.

Early Life

Beth was born in Roanoke, Virginia, USA. She was always asking questions as a child and wanted to know how things worked. She had a passion for science fiction. During a school trip to an observatory, she looked through a telescope for the first time and saw the Ring Nebula. That was the inspiration she needed to decide to study astronomy. She was the highest achieving student in her high school. Beth then went to Howard University to study astrophysics.

Early Life

Beatrice was born in Chester, UK, but her family moved to New Zealand after World War II. Beatrice won a scholarship to study at Canterbury University where she got a degree in physics.