Maggie Aderin-Pocock

"It’s funny how you don’t realise that you’ve been missing something until you see it in the flesh."

"People take the sky for granted, they don’t look up enough"

"I want to inspire the next generation of scientists, and especially girls, and let them know that STEM [science, technology, engineering and maths] is for them."

"Dreams don’t show up on government surveys or school league tables, but they are the fuel that makes us want to get up and get on. For young people to feel that the low road is the only one available to them is nonsense. We won’t climb out of recession, or meet the challenges of climate change, by thinking small."

"Heidi is what got me started in reading."

"Know your strengths and weaknesses and work towards your strengths and improve your weaknesses and have that crazy dream that will drive you on. There will always be people who will tell you that you can’t do something or that a certain path is not for you, but work out what you can do and go for it."

"I want everybody within the university and beyond to be reaching for the stars.To work out what works for them, what they love and to have a career in that area, because if you work at what you love it's hardly working at all."