International Day of People with Disabilities – Role Models

In celebration of International Day of People with Disabilities the EDI department have created a series of posters showcasing inspirational disabled scientists, with a brief explanation of their accomplishments on each poster. These posters will be displayed in the School of Physics and Astronomy on the International Day of People with Disabilities, 3rd December, and will serve as inspiration for aspiring physicist’s who can look up to these extradentary role models.

One of the role models chosen is Nobel Prize-winning English chemist Dorothy Hodgkin. Dorothy Hodgkin was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for solving the atomic structure of molecules such as penicillin and insulin, using X-ray crystallography. Generous, humble and hard-working throughout her half-century long career, she was undeterred by the rheumatoid arthritis that affected her from her late twenties. This included being the first to completely determine the structure of a complex organic molecule (cholesterol) by X-ray crystallography. When her painful condition recurred, she took aspirin and had heat treatment on her hands. She remains the only British woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize for science. This came in 1964, when she became the sole recipient of the Prize for chemistry ‘for her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances’. Dorothy was quoted with saying; “Mistakes are inherent in scientific research and are valuable learning opportunities.”

She serves as a exemplary role model for students with disabilities and for young women in STEM.

Another role model in the series is Patrick Dunne who is a particle physicist with Asperger’s, Dyspraxia, Tourette’s. The first advantage Patrick noticed that his Asperger’s syndrome has given him is the ability to really focus deeply on his special interest subjects. The other advantage that he noticed was that the experience of having to consciously interpret what other people are trying to communicate means that he doesn’t find it that different talking to people from different cultures. He said that he just assumes there’s another set of unspoken rules that I need to learn. Seeing a group of people from around the world come together to design and build a huge piece of equipment out of scientific curiosity that they then operate together for decades really restores your faith in humanity.

He was quoted with saying; “Don’t be afraid to ask for the help you need, whether that’s specific to your disability or not.”

The Pride role model posters are displayed below.