Maggie Aderin-Pocock

In 2014, the pseudonymously-written Ephraim Hardcastle diary column in the Daily Mail claimed that Aderin-Pocock (along with Hiranya Peiris) had been selected to discuss results from the Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization 2 (BICEP-2) experiment on BBC Newsnight because of her gender and ethnicity. The comments were condemned by mainstream media, the Royal Astronomical Society and Aderin-Pocock and Pereis's university, University College London, and the Daily Mail and its column backed down within days acknowledging that the women were chosen because they are highly qualified in their fields.

Aderin-Pocock was the scientific consultant for the 2009 mini-series Paradox, and also appeared on Doctor Who Confidential. In February 2011 she presented Do We Really Need the Moon? on BBC Two. She also presented In Orbit: How Satellites Rule Our World on BBC Two on 26 March 2012.

Aderin-Pocock discussed her life on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs in March 2010, and has been the subject of numerous biographical articles on women in science.

Aderin-Pocock was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2009 New Year Honours for services to science education. She also was awarded an honorary doctorate from Staffordshire University in 2009 for contributions to the field of science education.

Since 2006, Aderin-Pocock has served as a research fellow at UCL Department of Science and Technology Studies, supported by a Science in Society fellowship 2010-2013 funded by Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). She previously held two other fellowships related to science communication, including science and society fellowships 2006–08 Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) and 2008–10 (STFC). Also in 2006, she was one of six "Women of Outstanding Achievement" winners with GetSET Women.

She and Dr. Martin Pocock were married in 2002 and have one daughter, Lauren, born in 2010. They live in Guildford, Surrey.

Aderin-Pocock has worked on many projects in private industry, academia, and in government. From 1996 to 1999 she worked at the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, a branch of the UK Ministry of Defence. Initially, she worked as a systems scientist on aircraft missile warning systems, and from 1997 to 1999 she was a project manager developing hand-held instruments to detect landmines. In 1999, Aderin-Pocock returned to Imperial College on a fellowship from the Science and Technology Facilities Council to work with the group developing a high-resolution spectrograph for the Gemini telescope in Chile. The telescope examines and analyses starlight to improve understanding of distant stars.

She studied at Imperial College London, graduated with a B.Sc in physics in 1990, and completed her Ph.D in mechanical engineering under the supervision of Hugh Spikes in 1994. Her research investigated the development of an ultra-thin film measurement system using spectroscopy and interferometry to the 2.5 nm level. This involved improving the optical performance and the mechanical design of the system, as well as the development of control and image processing software. Other techniques at the time could only operate to the micron level with much poorer resolution. This development work resulted in the instrument being sold by an Imperial College University spin-off company, (PCS Instruments).

Margaret Ebunoluwa Aderin-Pocock MBE (née  Aderin; born 9 March 1968) is a British Space Scientist and Science Educator. She is an Honorary Research Associate of University College London's Department of Physics and Astronomy. Since February 2014, she has co-presented the long-running astronomy television programme The Sky at Night with Chris Lintott.

Aderin-Pocock was born in London on 9 March 1968 to Nigerian parents, Caroline Philips and Justus Adebayo Aderin, and was raised in Camden, London. Her name, "Ebunoluwa", stems from the Yoruba words, "Ebun" meaning "gift" and Oluwa meaning "God", which is also a variant form of the word "Oluwabunmi" or "Olubunmi", meaning "gift of God" in Yoruba. She attended La Sainte Union Convent School in North London. She has dyslexia and, as a child, when she told a teacher she wanted to be an astronaut, it was suggested she try nursing, "because that's scientific, too". She gained four A-Levels in maths, physics, chemistry, and biology.