A Sussex Alumna
I had a very nice meeting this morning with Sir Harry Kroto, who is back in the UK for the summer. We chatted about a number of exciting things going on at Sussex University and beyond, in the middle of which I remembered a film featuring my former PhD Student from Nottingham days, Emma King. The film was part of a series about young scientists made by the Vega Science Trust (which Harry set up) and it was originally broadcast on BBC 2 as part of The Learning Zone.
Emma is a graduate of the Department of Physics & Astronomy at Sussex University. As an undergraduate at the University of Sussex she made history when she became the first woman to win the top prize at the Science, Engineering and Technology Student of the Year award despite tests at school which showed that Emma was not only slightly dyslexic, but that also had very poor arithmetic skills and she says “a nearly non-existent visual memory.” None of that stopped her completing her PhD thesis (on magnetic fields in cosmology) in 2006.
p.s. After completing her PhD, Emma changed career and now runs this outdoor event venue.
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In the Dark 
August 9, 2013 at 2:14 pm
I think that’s a different Emma King.
Or is this some kind of “it’s in the Midlands” joke.
She does do this, however:
http://huntleywood.co.uk/
August 9, 2013 at 2:21 pm
It wasn’t a joke, just my carelessness…I’ve now corrected the link!
August 9, 2013 at 2:32 pm
She does much more than just serve the soup…
August 9, 2013 at 2:39 pm
Ha! Now I know I’ve gone bonkers. Hopefully it’s now correct.
August 9, 2013 at 6:36 pm
Joanna Collingwood, who won the SET physics prize the year before Emma must have got some grief at school for being a boy called Joanna…
August 9, 2013 at 7:04 pm
Emma didn’t just win the Physics prize, she also won the overall prize as top SET student. As far as I’m aware that’s the first time a woman had one that…
August 9, 2013 at 7:34 pm
Oops my bad. I didn’t realise there was an overall prize. I see from the website that there is, though.
August 11, 2013 at 7:35 pm
Hey Peter – thanks for the plug! 😉
I feel obliged to say that I do intend to return to science communication work once Huntley Wood is properly up and running and I’m no longer spending all my days worrying about hellishly practical things like foundations, sewage and drainage…
In particular we have reasonably dark skies up here in deepest, darkest Staffs, and since I have an amazing venue to hand I’m very keen to get some sort of Astronomy summer camp going here. Details very much TBC, but if anyone reading this would be interested in helping set up something of the like, feel free to get in touch.