• Question: Who is your favourite scientist

    Asked by whitejack to Andrew, Daniel, Hayley, Natalia, Peta on 15 Nov 2011. This question was also asked by rebeccacarey.
    • Photo: Andrew Cairns

      Andrew Cairns answered on 13 Nov 2011:

      Have to say Dorothy Hodgkin, someone who worked in my office, was a crystallographer and won the Nobel prize! I am also a huge supporter of getting women interested in and staying in academic science careers, where they are traditionally hugely underrepresented, and she is a great role model for this!

    • Photo: Hayley Smith

      Hayley Smith answered on 14 Nov 2011:

      I guess it would probably be Einstein – I think he shows the scientists are just regular people – but he had some crazy ideas that he worked really hard on and eventually people believed him. I read a biography of him too and that showed that he had a normal life, just like regular folk – very interesting.

      Also, I’ve studied his work and it makes no sense to me, so he must have been an amazing person to think of that in the first place!

    • Photo: Daniel Scully

      Daniel Scully answered on 14 Nov 2011:

      Albert Einstein.

      I really admire the fact that his theories were based on his intuition and understanding about how physics should behave. Then he went away and did the hard

      I don’t care if we can predict things very well, or measure them very accurately. It’s the understanding part that made me want to do science. And that is what Einstein was great at.

    • Photo: Peta Foster

      Peta Foster answered on 14 Nov 2011:

      James Clerk Maxwell. He thought a lot about what light was in the same way i like to and he even came up with some, now famous, equations that describe how light works. He then tried to come up with a physical description of how light works involving crazy cogs and wheels throughout space which i thought was funny.

      The best thing about Maxwell though was that he was a really good person. He was generous and kind and well known for being caring. this is why he is my favourite scientist since i think there is much more to a great scientist than just the scientific equations they may leave behind.

    • Photo: Natalia Parzyk

      Natalia Parzyk answered on 15 Nov 2011:

      Richard Feynman. Brilliant physicist who is great not only because of his extraordinary discoveries. He also wrote ‘The Feynman lectures on physics’ books about physics which showing it on interesting and understandable way, even if it’s about relay complicated scientific problem. And even you, as still at school, can read his books, don’t worry if you don’t get maths behind it, just follow the story and enjoy!

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