Brian Cox, physicist and broadcaster

Engineering is in need of a new poster boy. With Vince Cable hinting at plans to cut blue skies research and Lord Browne waging war on physicists at the Royal Academy of Engineering, the UK’s science and technology community seems more divided than ever. But now Prof Brian Cox, former rock star, working physicist and the BBC’s latest sensation, is planning to help unite the warring factions and bring engineering to the forefront of scientific research.

’I’d love to be seen as just as much a communicator for engineering as for science,’ said Cox, ’My dad says that I watched the Moon landings when I was one. I don’t remember that, but one of my earliest memories is seeing pictures of Apollo around the house. I’m sure it was those things that caught my eye because the early 1970s was a time of astonishing science and this inspiring engineering. Anything was possible and it was absolutely fascinating.’