Dr Aderin-Pocock is a Black-British space scientist born in Camden. She worked with the European Space Agency, where she was the lead of the optical instrumentation group. She managed the observation instruments for the Aeolus satellite. Launched in 2018, Aeolus was the first mission to obtain profiles of the Earth’s wind globally using a Doppler wind lidar, improving weather forecasts.
She also worked with NASA developing NIRSpec, the first spectrograph able to detect near infrared radiation and observing over 100 objects at the same time.
Additionally, Dr Aderin-Pocok co-presents “The Sky at Night” with the BBC, a scientific program focused on astronomy; with topics from archaeological finds, demonstrating the rich history of the subject, to NASA and the continued missions past the Earth’s atmosphere.
Speaking to Nature on the importance of diversity in science, Dr Aderin-Pocock said “When I first used passport machines, my passport would be rejected. The facial-recognition software just didn’t work for darker-skinned passport photos. When voice-commanded car-navigation systems first came out, women’s voices weren’t recognized and women were told to speak with a deeper voice, like a man. That’s not the solution! It’s the same with medicines. If they are developed using only a small group of people, they don’t work as well for others.”
Books she has authored include “Star Finder for Beginners” (2017) and “Am I Made of Stardust? Dr Maggie answers the big questions for young scientists” (2022).