In the fourth episode of Little Science Talks Season 1, Heidi Gardner and her co-host Anna Kebke are joined by John Baird, a Lecturer in entomology and infectious disease at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, and he joins us to talk about his meandering path to a STEM career. John grew up in Northern Ireland during the troubles, and it's fair to say that education was not at the top of his agenda - he was ultimately asked to leave school after an incident with a tractor. He went into the air force and ended up getting into trouble there too, ending his time in military prison after a drunken quest to sell a tank to Colonel Gaddafi... Eventually, at the age of 27, he decided it was time to get back on the straight and narrow and head to university, doing an access course before graduating with a BSc and PhD. He moved to the University of Aberdeen and was taken under the wing of Professor Mary Cotter, a much loved and admired member of the teaching staff. John is now a much loved member of Aberdeen's teaching staff himself, being nominated by students for University of Aberdeen Science Lecturer of the Year 2011, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2019, and 2020. John's keen on encouraging his students to be creative, and we discuss the course he set up (Anna was a student, and Heidi's lectured on the course previously) with the aim of cultivating imagination, creativity and curiosity within his students - a hugely popular course that's given students a new perspective on the way that they can use their scientific skills.

Find out more about John and his work here:

Staff webpage: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/sbs/people/profiles/john.baird#panel_profile

Twitter: hhttps://twitter.com/JohnB_Aberdeen

Talking Heads song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKti7QixnJI&ab_channel=JustSomeVideos

For more information about Little Science Co head to the website: littlescienceco.com, follow on Instagram: instagram.com/littlescienceco, or follow on Twitter: twitter.com/littlescienceco. A blog post with full transcript will be available on the Little Science Co blog in the coming days: littlescienceco.com/blog.See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.