Dr Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock is a British space scientist and science educator. She is an honorary research associate of UCL’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, and has been the chancellor of the University of Leicester since 1 March 2023. Since February 2014, she has co-presented the long-running astronomy television programme The Sky at Night, with Chris Lintott. In 2020 she was awarded the Willian Thomson, Lord Kelvin Medal and Prize from the Institute of Physics for her public engagement in physics. She was the first black woman to win a gold medal in the Physics News Award and she served as the president of the British Science Association from 2021 to 2022.
Dame Maggie was born and raised in London. She studied at Imperial College London, graduating with a BSc in physics in 1990, and completed her PhD in mechanical engineering in 1994.
Having spent early years of her career at the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, developing hand-held instruments to detect landmines, in 1999, Dame Maggie returned to Imperial to work with the group developing a high-resolution spectrograph for the Gemini telescope in Chile. The high spectral resolution of the instrument allowed studies of stellar populations, interstellar medium, and some physical phenomena in stars with small masses. She also worked on and managed the observation instruments for the Aeolus satellite, which measured wind speeds to help the investigation of climate change.
Dame Maggie is a pioneering figure in communicating science to the public, specifically school children and is committed to inspiring new generations of astronauts, engineers, and scientists. She has spoken to thousands of children, many from inner-city schools, explaining how and why she became a scientist, challenging perceptions about careers, class, and gender.
In February 2011, Dame Maggie presented Do We Really Need the Moon? On BBC Two. She presented In Orbit: How Satellites Rule Our World on BBC Two on 26 March 2012. As well as presenting The Sky a Night with Chris Lintott, Dame Maggie has presented Stargazing on CBeebies with Chris Jarvis, and Out of This World on CBBC with her daughter Lauren.
Since 2006, the year she was named as one of six "Women of Outstanding Achievement" winners with GetSET Women, Dame Maggie has served as a research fellow at UCL and was appointed as Chancellor of the University of Leicester in March 2023.
Dame Maggie lives with her husband and daughter in Surrey.