Taylor Wilson
Attributes
Passionate – having strong feelings about subjects and hobbies that interest you.
Curious – always wanting to learn new things.
Self-motivated – doing activities for yourself without being told how to do them.
About Taylor
Taylor Wilson is a Nuclear Physicist who looks into new ways to harvest energy from radioactive materials. From as young as 11, Taylor has been curious about the way the world works, his interests including space travel, genetics, chemistry and nuclear energy. He became the youngest person to ever create a nuclear fusion reactor when he achieved it at the age of 14, doing all of his work in his parent’s garage. He was self-motivated to complete the task and gained widespread recognition for his achievements.
Taylor was awarded a Thiel Fellowship in 2012 (a $100,000 grant awarded to under 19’s who excel at research) at the age of 18 and continues to research and develop new technologies. He is very passionate about helping the world to be a better place and is using his grant to develop new ways to use subatomic particles to confront 3 of the biggest challenges that face us at this current time: cancer, terrorism and the energy crisis.
Nikisha Patel
Attributes
Hard working – putting all of your effort into finishing something.
Tenacious – sticking with a difficult task until it is completed.
Collaborative – working well in a team or pairs.
About Nikisha
Nikisha is a botanist who has recently graduated from a top American university with a first class degree in Biology. She is incredibly hard-working and this showed during her time at University in order to achieve such a high standard qualification. Nikisha now works with a team of Botanists studying some of the rarest plants in the world and has to be collaborative so she can work well with others and share new ideas. Her job also means she gets to travel the world to find some of the plants! Sometimes finding the plants she needs to study can be very tricky and once found the work she has to do is difficult and challenging but Nikisha is tenacious; so refuses to give up until she has solved the problem.
Jane Goodall
Attributes
Patient – staying calm when faced with problems.
Resilient – quickly recovering from difficult or challenging things.
Communicator – good at sharing information and ideas with other people.
About Jane
Dame Jane Goodall is a primatologist and zoologist who has mainly studied chimpanzees. Jane grew up in London dreaming of spending time with wild animals and during her teenage years saved up enough money to pay for a trip to Africa. She loved it so much that she stayed and began to study a group of chimpanzees. Jane once lived with a group of chimps for two whole years in order to find out how they really live, during this time Jane was patient because she knew interesting discoveries might not happen quickly. Being with wild animals could be a frustrating and even scary place to be so Jane had to be very resilient. Once she had made a discovery it was important she noted it down and then was able to communicate her findings with other scientists and the public. One of her main findings was that she observed chimps using tools made from branches of trees, the first time animals were seen using tools. Throughout her life she has also fought for the conservation of wildlife habitats across the world.
Saiful Islam
Attributes
Creative – having original ideas and making new things.
Imaginative – thinking of interesting ideas.
Organised – being tidy and planning into order to complete tasks.
About Saiful
Saiful Islam is a British materials chemist who is Professor of Chemistry at the University of Bath. His research and teaching is about finding new ways to make electricity. Alongside his expertise in the field, his imagination has allowed him to help develop new types of batteries and solar cells. Saiful works in a team of researchers to carry out tests on the new technology. His planning and organisation skills help the team complete their work on time.
Saiful recently presented the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, a series of demonstration-based lectures every year. These allowed him to show his creative side.
Twitter: @SaifulChemistry
Peggy Whitson
Attributes
Observant – good at paying attention, quick to notice things and can spot the fine details.
Open minded – respects other peoples ideas and opinions, willing to listen to new ideas.
Committed – always tries as hard as possible at an activity.
About Peggy
From a working class background in Iowa in the United States, Peggy Whitson studied Biology and Chemistry at high school and went on to earn a degree in Biochemistry from one of America’s top universities. She became a medical science researcher at various universities, and eventually at NASA. Doing this research required Peggy to be very observant and also open-minded to new ideas. Peggy joined NASA in 1989 and showed such commitment to her job that 7 years later she was selected as an astronaut candidate. She began the huge amount of training needed to go into space, with her first launch in 2002. In 2007 she again visited the International Space Station (ISS), bringing her total time in orbit to 376 days. On October 28th 2016 she began her third voyage to the ISS, by the end of which she’ll have spent more time in space than any other US Astronaut, surpassing the previous record of 534 days. She’s also the first woman to command the ISS. Peggy is NASA’s most experienced female astronaut and, at 56, the oldest woman to go to space. Twitter: @AstroPeggy
Images courtesy: NASA.
