School of Physics Seminar Programme 2014-2015
Venue: Larmor Lecture Theatre
Time: 13:00
Monday, February 10th
Making physics spectacular: behind the scenes at the
Science Museum
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Curating one of the world’s greatest collections of physics and astronomy, spanning from the
10th to the 21st centuries, is a varied job. One minute you’re holding a copy of Newton’s
Principia Mathematica, and the next you’re partying with Peter Higgs and Stephen Hawking.
Although really you spend most of your time writing proposal documents, stopping exhibition
designers from blowing your budget, and trying to track down objects – all elements of
creating exhibitions and experiences to interest audiences in the complexities of science and
how it operates.
The speaker is Alison Boyle, who completed a BSc in Experimental Physics in 1998, followed by a
European Master’s in Astronomy at the Universidade do Porto and University of Oxford.
Moving from doing physics to writing about it, she completed an MSc in Science
Communication at Imperial College London in 2001 and since then has been at the Science
Museum, where she is now a senior member of the curatorial team. She is lead curator of
the Museum’s blockbuster exhibition Collider: step inside the world’s greatest experiment,
which runs in London until May, followed by an international tour, and is studying part-time
for a PhD in Science and Technology Studies at University College London.