Success stories

In this video we hear the success stories of some of the best scientists in the UK. Find out how they began their research, got funding and found great success in their various fields of research, to become world-renowned. Featuring fellows of the Royal Society - Professor Shankar Balasubramanian FMedSci FRS, Professor David Klenerman FRS, Professor Paul O’Brien FRS and Sophie Wilson FREng FRS.

How does scientific research move from an idea to an overnight success story?

Sophie Wilson (FREng FRS) whose career started when she joined Acorn Computes Ltd, discusses ARM (Acorn RISC Machine) first designed in 1983; which she describes as “An overnight success, that was 30 years in the making”. In 1985, an updated version of ARM (ARM1) was introduced to the world and worked the first time; later becoming one of the most successful IP cores. In 2012 ARM was being used in the production of 95% of smartphones; as Wilson states, “Practically everyone on the planet owns a device powered by ARM”. Wilson then went on to design and develop Acorn Replay, which was video architecture for Acorn machines. This included the operating system extensions for video access as well as the codecs, which were optimised to run high-frame rate video on ARM CPUs from the ARM 2 onwards.

In 1990 Wilson became a consultant to ARM Ltd when it split from Acorn. In 2012 she was presented with the Fellow Award from the Computer History Museum in Calfornia for her work alongside Steve Furber on the BBC Micro computer and the ARM processor architecture.

We also hear from Professor Paul O’Brien (FRS) the founder of Nanoco – an AIM listed company which manufactures nanoparticles. O’Brien discusses the work he carried out at Imperial College, “finding a new way of synthesizing using simple chemical methods”. During his career he has published over 500 scientific papers, including a series on technology and nanoscience. In the new year he was awarded a CBE for services to science.

We also hear from Professor Shankar Balasubramanian (FMedSci FRS) who discusses how he and Professor David Klenerman (FRS) discovered a faster way of sequencing DNA than previous conventional methods.

We hope you are inspired by watching these great scientists who have managed to innovate, become leaders in their field and benefit society as a whole.

Thumbnail image: © Nic Delves-Broughton, University of Bath.


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