PHOTOGRAPHY: ALAMY; BBC PICTURES/CHARLIE CLIFT; GEMMA DAY/CAMERA PRESS
1984 Hannah arrives in the world.
Someyears later Learns to code
on ZX Spectrum
2011 Completes her PhD in fluid
dynamicsin 2011 at UCL after
graduating in Mathematics with
Theoretical Physics
2013 Marries husband Phil
2015 Presents first television
programme,Climate Change by
Numbers. Publishes bookThe
Mathematics of Lovefollowing
the success of her TED talk
2016 Co-hosts first series of BBC Radio
4 showThe Curious Cases of
Rutherford & Frywith Dr Adam
Rutherford in which they look
into science mysteries
2017 First daughter born. Another
baby girl is due this summer
2018 Receives Christopher Zeeman
Medalfor contributions to public
understanding of maths.Hello
Worldis published and shortlisted
for Royal Society Prize; she buys
a piano with awarded fundsSUMMING UP
The Hannah Fry CVLovelace. “There are plenty of geniuses you can pin
your admiration on, but it’s the human side of people
that makes them admirable, they bring the subject
closer because you can see yourself in them.”
Considered by many to be the world’s first computer
programmer, Ada had ideas that were too far ahead of
their time (100 years before one of the machines was
built) to be rea lised. “She dra n k, swore, ra n a n
underground bookies, had affairs all over the place
and said exactly what she bloody thought of you and
didn’t hold back. Ada wasn’t a dainty Victorian
woman. I think this really demonstrates that it doesn’t
matter who you are or how much people end up
listening to you, there is a place for you.”
So what are the chinks in Hannah’s armour then? Is
t h is successf ul academ ic ever ir rat iona l? “ I act ua lly
have proper adult tantrums,” she admits, “which
involve a lot of shouting at myself. I’m very bad at
making myself sit down and write if I have a book to
do. I have this alter ego called Helen. I find it much
easier to get cross with myself if I pretend that I have
another character.” After Hannah’s told off her wilder
self and buckled down, she unwinds by either taking
to the piano that she recently bought (and admits to
playing badly) or picking up a needle and thread.
“ I ma ke clot h ing for my t wo -yea r-old daughter a nd
me, including a bright blue jumpsuit. Though I don’t
end up wearing most of it.”
Hannah’s quite right – these quirks only make her
more likeable. Is there an equation for that? If it
doesn’t already exist, no doubt it soon will.my peers because I’d seen it all before. Once you’re
even just a tiny bit ahead, a subject becomes far more
enjoyable.” Ambitions to become a hairdresser or work
in Formula 1 (designing the aerodynamics of cars)
aside, Hannah’s path was set down from that summer
onwards, leading her to study mathematics at UCL
where she also obtained a doctorate in f luid dynamics,
which she explains: “It doesn’t matter whether you’re
talking about the way air moves or water moves,
there’s a single equation to describe them. When a car
is described as aerodynamic or a swimmer is
streamlined, ultimately the maths is the same thing.
From t he out side, a n equat ion doesn’t rea lly tell
you that much about the world. But when you use it
like a magnifying glass, it can change how you view
the universe.”INSPIRED BY THE BEST
Among the figures Hannah finds most fascinating is
19th-century mathematician and scientist AdaLIVING (^) | WISDOM