Dame Dr Maggie Aderin-Pock inspires local students to shoot for the stars
Tonight (2 October 2025), astronomer and BBC Sky at Night presenter Dame Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock introduced a screening of Close Encounters of the Third Kind for local students at Everyman King’s Cross.
The event was hosted by global science publisher Springer Nature and attended by over 50 students from Elizabeth Garret Anderson school and Capital City College, who were able to hear from Dame Dr Aderin-Pocock about her career and ask her questions.
Dame Maggie told the audience while in conversation with Chief Editor of Nature Dr Magdalena Skipper that she chose the 1977 Spielberg blockbuster for the inspirational effect it had on her career.
Commenting on the evening, Dame Maggie said:
“Sharing Close Encounters of the Third Kind with tonight’s audience was a joy. It’s my favourite science film – a reminder of why I fell in love with space and why I still dream of exploring it. I believe that wonder is integral to good science and good storytelling. Asking questions and imagining what’s possible. That’s why science on screen is so powerful. It can challenge assumptions, communicate complex ideas and inspire audiences to explore STEM. Tonight was a celebration of effective science communication and the creativity of science – something that can often be overlooked."
The screening builds on Springer Nature’s partnership with Everyman cinemas, bringing science to the big screen, which started earlier this year when Springer Nature colleagues chose The Martian to be played at Everyman on the Canal, an outdoor cinema experience in King’s Cross.
It also forms part of Springer Nature’s efforts to work closely with the communities local to their offices. Their aim is to challenge perceptions of scientists and researchers to inspire a new generation and support effective science communications, which can take many forms – including storytelling and film. The event follows the success of last year’s award-winning photography exhibition in King’s Cross, ‘What does a scientist look like?’ which garnered international attention.
Remarking on the work Springer Nature does in the local area, Group Head of Corporate Affairs and UK location lead at Springer Nature, Joyce Lorigan, said:
“It was such a pleasure to bring Close Encounters of the Third Kind back to the big screen this evening. Special thanks must go to Dame Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock for choosing the film and introducing it for us. Seeing students, colleagues and friends inspired by her words and the wonder of space travel was fantastic. We hope the young people who joined us left feeling excited by the magic of science storytelling and the possibility of a future in STEM. We so enjoy organising events like this with local schools, businesses and charities, coming together to show the power of collaboration and our shared community. While we’re a global organisation, we’re proud to have called King’s Cross our home for 30 years and hope to keep building connections like these for years to come."
Dr Magdalena Skipper, who hosted the evening, added:
“Researchers everywhere want to make a difference to the world around them, it’s why so many of them do the job they do. But their discoveries can only have a true impact if people can relate to them. That’s why science communication is so important, especially now. Science rarely meets its full potential impact if it is not shared effectively, and creativity and arts like science cinema can make a big difference. It was wonderful to speak with Dame Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock this evening, to hear how she has prioritised effective science communication in her career, taking her work from scientific journal papers to prime-time television, and her advice for researchers looking to share their work with new audiences."
To celebrate the event, Springer Nature also shared a companion reading list of their published papers on space topics with attendees as well as a science film watch list, as selected by their 1,500 London based colleagues – who work with science and research every day.
ENDS
- The ‘What does a scientist look like?’ exhibition won a Gold anthem award and received media coverage across the world from The Times to the Vatican Observatory and the BBC.
- For more information on Springer Nature’s sustainability efforts, visit their Taking Responsibility website.
- Speaker biographies:
Dame Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock PhD is a space scientist whose passion is presenting science to a general audience and demonstrating that you ‘don’t need a brain the size of a small planet’ to understand, participate in and enjoy science. She studied at Imperial College London, where she obtained her degree in Physics and her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering. She has spent her career making novel, bespoke instrumentation in both the industrial and academic environments including working on the James Webb Space Telescope and various satellites monitoring climate change. To further share her passion for science Maggie founded “Science Innovation Ltd” in 2004. Through this company she conducts public engagement activities, sharing her love of space and encouraging underrepresented communities to take up STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. To date Maggie has directly spoken to well over 600,000 people around the world. As well as public speaking she is a bafta nominated TV presenter, co-hosts the world’s longest-running science television program “The Sky at Night” as well as many other television and radio appearances. She is also an author with her recent children’s book “Am I made of Stardust” winning a Royal Society book prize. Maggie also won the Institute of Physics gold medal for exceptional services to science education and physics communication and was the President of the British Science Association. She is the current Chancellor of the University of Leicester and in December, will be presenting the 200th Anniversary Royal Institution Christmas Lecture. Maggie was made a Dame in the 2023 New Year’s Honours list. As Editor in Chief, Magdalena Skipper leads Nature’s magazine and research editorial teams. A geneticist by training, she has considerable editorial and publishing experience: having started in Nature Publishing Group in 2001, she was Chief Editor of Nature Reviews Genetics, Senior Editor for genetics and genomics at Nature, and Executive Editor for the Nature Partner Journals. Before joining Nature as Editor in Chief she was Editor in Chief of Nature Communications. She studied sex determination at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK, and Notch signalling in the vertebrate gut epithelium at the ICRF Laboratories (CRUK today), London. She is passionate about mentorship, research integrity as well as open and equitable research practice. She is the editorial champion of diversity, equality and inclusion at Springer Nature. She serves on the advisory board of the University of Oxford Centre for Personalised Medicine and the board of directors for GESDA. She is a member of the Strategic Council for Research Excellence, Integrity, and Trust and the Scientific Advisory Council for the UK Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists. She is a fellow of the International Science Council |
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King’s Cross is home to 67 acres of outstanding architecture, destination restaurants and a vibrant cultural scene. At its heart is the Heatherwick Studio-designed shopping district, Coal Drops Yard housed in a pair of artfully reimagined industrial Victorian buildings. The area’s industrial past has inspired the 50 new and repurposed buildings, which are surrounded by beautifully designed green spaces and public areas, including Granary Square and its iconic fountains. This bustling creative neighbourhood is a lively place in central London to visit day and night and has a deserved reputation as a culinary hot spot.
King’s Cross is somewhere you can live, work and play – over 20,000 people now work in the area, and it has close to 2,000 homes. This includes landmark development Gasholders London, comprising 145 new canal-side apartments within a triplet of Grade II-listed cast-iron gasholder frames.
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Maeve Dunne | Sustainable Business team | Springer Nature
