Maggie Aderin Pocock

Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock MBE is a space scientist whose passion is presenting science to a general audience and demonstrating that you ‘don’t need a brain the size of a small planet’ to understand, participate in and enjoy science.  Her BBC 2 programme, “Do We Really Need the Moon?” showed just that.  The programme earned Maggie the talkback Thames new talent award at the prestigious Women in Film and TV Awards in December 2011.

She went on to present “Do We Really Need Satellites?” and was one of the main scientists on Channel 4’s Brave New World and panellist on Sky One’s science show ‘Ducks Quack Don’t Echo’.  She is currently presenting Sky at Night on BBC 4, Mini Stargazing for Cbeebies and is a contributor on Channel 4’s quiz show ‘I Literally Just Told You’.  She makes regular appearances on The One Show, Newsnight and Woman’s Hour and was a guest on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs and BBC1’s Last Night of The Proms (2021).  Her book ‘The Sky at Night’s Book of the Moon’ (BBC Books) was published in September 2018 and her children’s book ‘Dr Maggie’s Grand Tour of the Solar System’ (Michael O’Mara) was published in 2019.  Her new children’s book ‘Am I Made of Stardust?’ is out in September (2022).  Maggie is President of the British Science Association.

Maggie studied at Imperial College where she obtained her degree in Physics and her PhD in Mechanical Engineering.  Since then she has spent much of her career making novel, bespoke instrumentation ranging from hand held land mine detectors to an optical subsystem for the James Webb Space Telescope.

To further share her love of science Maggie conducts “Tours of the Universe” and other public engagement activities, showing school children and adults around the world the wonders of space.