Old Stopfordian Dr Anthony Freeman CBE (OS 1976) captivated pupils in both the Junior and Senior Schools as he talked about his stellar career at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

The sky’s the limit for Year 2

Dr Freeman’s visit began with a visit to the Year 2 classrooms. The children have just finished their ‘Explorers’ topic and have been learning about Astronaut Mae Jemison. They were delighted that Dr Freeman knew a number of astronauts – though he pointed out that he was not an astronaut himself!

The Old Stop shared that his favourite planet was Venus, as a number of the radar missions that he led on were to Earth’s neighbour – such as VenSAR, and he made the pupils aware that there is a team at NASA who look for life on other planets.

During his visit the inquisitive pupils asked lots of wonderful questions about space. Mrs Hurst and Mrs Sullivan commented that their classes could have spent all morning asking Dr Freeman questions about his work – it looks like there are a few aspiring Astrophysicists in the Junior School!

“On the upswing”: Dr Freeman’s words of wisdom for Senior School pupils

After a short tour and lunch, Dr Freeman spoke to around 80 Physics students and Astrophysics enthusiasts as part of the Library’s ‘Spotlight On…” talk series.

He shared his journey from SGS, to his PhD in Astrophysics, to one of the world’s leading experts in Synthetic Aperture Radar. He credits the inspiration for his onward career to being shown the moon landings by Mr Hermann in his German class whilst at school.

During the course of the half-hour talk, Dr Freeman took the audience on an intergalactic journey, explaining how he created mathematical models that now bear his name, and a radar technique that is named after his family pet, Sweep.

Dr Freeman helpfully punctuated his tour of all the NASA projects that he’s been involved in with “notes to [his] 17-year-old self”. He explained about how it is “more fun” to pick a field “on the upswing”, as there is more to discover and make your mark with. He also enthused about the merits of choosing to study Maths for science or engineering careers, and the importance of being able to “read, write and comprehend” for STEM careers.

It was a privilege to host Dr Freeman – especially so soon after the announcement of his CBE for services to UK/US Relations in Space and Earth Science.