Science is a real strength area for the UK where we've had a real global impact
so reflecting it on or one of our British notes is a fantastic way for
us to celebrate the real achievements in this space.
It was staggering, I think there were almost a quarter of a million nominations
from the general public from retired professors I guess down to
school kids and everybody in between.
And I must admit when the list came through,
even 900 candidates, I was slightly overwhelmed because I felt that each
candidate had a right to be heard.
My background's in Physics and so they were
Biologists and many, many others who, geniuses who contributed to British life
who I had never heard of.
But they each had a story to tell and I think that's
what the wonderful thing about this process it flags people who you might
not have heard of but are doing amazing science.
In our short list we had the double act of Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage
and so these two people really set the stage for the 20th century
all of the technology around us
today can be traced back to Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage.
I think Stephen Hawking made an amazing and huge contribution to science.
I think his understanding of the origins of the universe, the Big Bang, his understanding
and his contribution around our understanding of black holes and our
understanding of a universal theory of everything or paving the way to that.
Coupled with his huge work as a science communicator, helping efforts of others
to understand the world of science, inspiring others to become scientists
and also of course overcoming adversity doing all of this
while suffering from Motor Neuron disease.
But one of my favorite was Rutherford.
Rutherford, I always mention him in all my talks because he looks very serious
but he did some amazing work, sort of probing the heart of atoms.
Dorothy Hodgkin was one of the amazing chemists on the list. Her groundbreaking work
discovering the structure of really important proteins has helped save so
many lives. She researched the structure of Penicillin, Insulin and so she was
really influential in forming some of the treatments for diseases like
Diabetes that are such big issues today.
I think that Alan Turing is a wonderful person
to be put on the £50 note because his work covered so much I think
many are aware of the work he did on the enigma machine and the work he did at
Bletchley Park but his work starts before that and after that as well.
Before, I mean he was working papers he was a mathematician, he was fascinated by the
workings of computers and how they might come together and so he'd write
some very seminal papers on that before he ever started working at Bletchley Park.
Alan Turing had that initial idea, that initial concept of the machine that could calculate
numbers and solve problems that really was the seed of the computer revolution
that's still carrying on today.
I think Alan Turing's legacy is without a doubt
up to 20 million lives that he saved during the Second World War, to have laid
the foundation of our worlds today of computing and artificial intelligence
but also for the awful atrocities that he experienced during his lifetime.
It's important to remember Alan Turing was a homosexual and after the war he was
charged with gross indecency and he was given hormone treatment and ultimately
this led to him taking his own life. And when we look at the £50 note and we
look at Alan Turing I hope we think about the amazing things that humans can do
and the amazing contributions to science that Britain has made but I also
hope we think about the way we want the world to be in the future and how we
should all treat each other.
I think Alan Turing's legacy today and marking him
and honouring him on a £50 note is a really important signal to the entire
world that we as a nation support and embrace diversity, gender diversity and
sexuality and that actually people should be honored according to what they
do in the world, who they are in the world, the difference they make in the world.
I'm really looking forward to being
involved in the design and the production of the £50 pound note which
we expect to enter circulation by the end of 2021.