AHEAD OF WORLD SPACE
WEEK, LEADING BRITISH SPACE
SCIENTIST PROF MONICA GRADY
TALKS TO US ABOUT THE
NEXT GENERATION OF STEM
PROFESSIONALS AND THE FUTURE
OF SPACE EXPLORATIONA SPACE
FOR ALL
Profile
RADARWHEN DID YOU FIRST DECIDE TO PURSUE IN
PLANETARY AND SPACE SCIENCE?
I did geology and chemistry for my first
degree, which I really enjoyed. But I had
no clue what I wanted to do – I just knew I
didn’t want to go into sales or anything like
that. This was 1979, the internet hadn’t been
invented and it wasn’t so easy to find out
about the range of jobs available, so I decided
I’d better stay on and do research.
Then I saw this advert for a PhD, for
somebody to work on lunar samples and
meteorites, and thought, “That sounds pretty
interesting.” I’d done a module in my final
year about the Moon and lunar rocks. I’d
seen them under the microscope, and they
were fascinating. It just went on from there.WHAT DOES IT TAKE FOR SOMEONE TO BECOME
A SPACE SCIENTIST?
You’ve got to love it. That’s a quality you
need for any career, I think. You’ve got
to enjoy what you’re doing, because then
you’ll do it not just for the salary but for the
enjoyment, for the people you meet and the
things you’re learning. Then it’s not a pain to
get out of bed in the mornings.LACK OF DIVERSITY IS A WIDER ISSUE
IN STEM. WHAT DO WE NEED TO DO TO
ENCOURAGE MORE PEOPLE INTO THE
SPACE INDUSTRY?
This year, there were more women going
on to science courses at university after
A-Levels than men. But if you took out the
biological and medical sciences, there were
many, many more men going in than women.
So it’s getting over the idea that women can’t
or shouldn’t do physical sciences.“I think it would be
fantastic if we had a day
when we switched space
o , so people realised how
much we rely on space and
space technology”
WORLD SPACE WEEK
4- 10 OCTOBER
WORLDSPACEWEEK.ORGBadges on the jacket of European
Space Agency astronaut
Jean-Francois ClervoyAHEAD OF WORLD SPACE
WEEK, LEADING BRITISH SPACE
SCIENTIST PROF MONICA GRADY
TALKS TO US ABOUT THE
NEXT GENERATION OF STEM
PROFESSIONALS AND THE FUTURE
OF SPACE EXPLORATION
A SPACE
FOR ALL
Profile
RADARWHEN DID YOU FIRST DECIDE TO PURSUE IN
PLANETARY AND SPACE SCIENCE?
I did geology and chemistry for my first
degree, which I really enjoyed. But I had
no clue what I wanted to do – I just knew I
didn’t want to go into sales or anything like
that. This was 1979, the internet hadn’t been
invented and it wasn’t so easy to find out
about the range of jobs available, so I decided
I’d better stay on and do research.
Then I saw this advert for a PhD, for
somebody to work on lunar samples and
meteorites, and thought, “That sounds pretty
interesting.” I’d done a module in my final
year about the Moon and lunar rocks. I’d
seen them under the microscope, and they
were fascinating. It just went on from there.
WHAT DOES IT TAKE FOR SOMEONE TO BECOME
A SPACE SCIENTIST?
You’ve got to love it. That’s a quality you
need for any career, I think. You’ve got
to enjoy what you’re doing, because then
you’ll do it not just for the salary but for the
enjoyment, for the people you meet and the
things you’re learning. Then it’s not a pain to
get out of bed in the mornings.
LACK OF DIVERSITY IS A WIDER ISSUE
IN STEM. WHAT DO WE NEED TO DO TO
ENCOURAGE MORE PEOPLE INTO THE
SPACE INDUSTRY?
This year, there were more women going
on to science courses at university after
A-Levels than men. But if you took out the
biological and medical sciences, there were
many, many more men going in than women.
So it’s getting over the idea that women can’t
or shouldn’t do physical sciences.“I think it would be
fantastic if we had a day
when we switched space
o , so people realised how
much we rely on space and
space technology”
WORLD SPACE WEEK
4 10 OCTOBER
WORLDSPACEWEEK.ORGBadges on the jacket of European
Space Agency astronaut
Jean-Francois Clervoy