• By Jennifer Harby
• BBC News

25 minutes ago

Image supply, University of Leicester

Image caption,

Naomi met Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock on her take a look at to Leicester

A lady who is operating at Nasa has spoken of how inspired she was by the appointment of Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock as her former university’s chancellor.

Naomi Rowe-Gurney, 32, a former student at the university, stated she had been inspired by Dr Aderin-Pocock’s profession.

“I could not think a black lady was on Television speaking about space science,” she stated.

Dr Rowe-Gurney, who is initially from Newbury in Hampshire, is on a two-year contract as a post-doctoral analysis scientist at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Washington.

Image supply, Naomi Rowe-Gurney

Image caption,

Dr Rowe-Gurney stated it was her dream to function to Nasa

She stated she had been “in like” with space science from an early age immediately after a college trip to the London Planetarium.

“When I discovered out about space, I was about 5 years old,” she stated.

“When I realised we’re on just a single planet out of quite a few planets and rotating about a star, it all just, you know, type of blew my tiny small thoughts.

“Ever due to the fact then I was truly interested in deep space and black holes in cosmology, prior to I moved into planetary science.”

Image supply, Naomi Rowe-Gurney

Image caption,

Dr Rowe-Gurney stated she had often loved science

She stated that, as a black girl who loved science, coming across Dr Aderin-Pocock presenting the BBC’s The Sky At Evening had been “remarkable”.

“It was truly an inspiration to see her there, and then I got the possibility to meet her as nicely, in Leicester, when she was filming a single of her episodes and, like a appropriate nerd, I asked her to sign my calculator,” she stated.

“I’ve nonetheless got it someplace and I treasure it.”

She stated she had also been inspired by mates and family members members when she was expanding up, such as a single of her aunts who had accomplished a physics degree.

“I had a lot of function models expanding up,” she stated. “So that was a genuine crucial portion in my achievement.”

She stated that despite the fact that she had discovered the US incredibly diverse, Nasa itself was significantly less so but she was getting mentored by senior black colleagues.

Image supply, Naomi Rowe-Gurney

Image caption,

Dr Rowe-Gurney stated her family members had also inspired her profession

“That is type of the purpose why I came to Nasa,” she stated. “You feel of black ladies pioneers like in the film Hidden Figures, which is a single of my favourite films.

“I am assisting all the scientists who appear at planetary systems, so not just atmospheres, but surfaces, moons and rings.”

She stated it had been her dream to function at the space agency and arrived there in October 2021, immediately after finishing a PhD at Leicester, through which she studied the atmospheres of Neptune and Uranus.

She is due to return to the UK in October and she stated she was hunting forward to seeing her family members.