Imperial academics on list of top UK practising scientists

Two Imperial College researchers have been placed on list of 100 top practising scientists compiled by the Science Council. Professor Michelle Dougherty and Dr Ahmer Wadee join other well known scientists on the list, including Lord Martin Reese, Sir Paul Nurse and Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell.

Professor Dougherty’s citation praises “her leadership in space science as team leader on the magnetometer instrument aboard the NASA-ESA Cassini Mission to the Saturn System and ... her contribution to encourage young women into science”. Professor Dougherty has been responsible for world leading research on Saturn’s moon, Ganymede, and was named a Fellow of the Royal Society in April 2012.

Dr Wadee, of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Deparmtent, was praised for “his research in the field of nonlinear mechanics of structural stability, primarily involving modelling buckling instabilities in metallic and composite material structures”.

The Science Council was formed by a Royal Charter in 2003 with the aim of promoting both research and popular engagement with science. Diana Garnham, chief executive of the Council, said that she hoped the list would serve to raise the profile of scientists who are normally ignored by the media. She added: “we must ... recognise and encourage the many ... types of contributory scientific talent and experience”.