I suffer from dyslexia and was generally thought to be pretty dumb when I started school, so I was put in the remedial class. When I was about seven or eight, I remember the teacher talking about weights and volumes. If a litre of water weighed a kilogram, how much did one cubic centimetre of water weigh? I thought to myself: “Well, that’s a thousandth of a litre so it would be a gram because that’s a thousandth of a kilo.” I put my hand up but no one else did, so I put it back down. But then I decided to be brave and put it back up again and I was right. That was a real turnaround for me.
I went to 13 different schools in all, partly because my parents were separated and custody changed. I would always end up in the lower classes but, just before GCSEs, I joined a school in north London and they asked what stream I should be in. This time I lied and said the upper stream. I had realised by then that it was easier to go down than to go up and if I wanted to fulfil my dreams I should start high. It was there that I met my favourite science teacher.
I was already passionate about science because scientists got people into space and that had always been my dream. The night sky was so magical and exciting to me, and this teacher sparked that same excitement in the classroom. We would do experiments and he would never tell us what to expect, so it felt like we were discovering things for the first time. It was in his class that I decided I wanted to be a scientist.
My parents had come to the UK from Nigeria in the 50s and arrived in a sometimes hostile place. My father realised that it was important for his daughters to get an education. I would talk to him about what I was learning at school and he’d say: “I remember that, let’s go and get a book from the library.” I would read and we would study together. Then I’d go back into class with even more knowledge.
Soon, I was at the top of every class, in spite of my dyslexia. Doing better in science brought me up in other subjects too. I knew there was more to me than people expected and I wanted to prove it. And it all started in that class.
When I went to Imperial College London to study physics, I was one of about 200 undergrads. I think there were five girls and one other black student. Things have improved since, but I have made it my crusade to get more girls into science. One of the problems is a lack of role models, coupled with the internal barriers girls face – they can’t see themselves in science careers. So I go to schools – and I have talked to more than 250,000 pupils now – and show them one example of what you can do. But it’s easy for me. I pop in, take them on a tour of the universe, and then run off without any marking or discipline to maintain. Teachers have an incredibly tough job, so I also speak to them and share ideas, because they have such a powerful role. We need to keep them inspired, because if they can ignite that spark in students, like my teacher did in me, they can change lives.
