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Lisa Jardine. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi |
My hero: Lisa Jardine by Martin Rees
The astronomer royal pays tribute to polymath Lisa Jardine, who died this week
Martin Rees
Sat 31 Oct 2015
M
ost people’s careers run in grooves. Even if their achievements are lasting, they are usually within an established role – in politics, business, academia or a profession. But there are some people who can’t be categorised – creative personalities who straddle conventional boundaries in a unique way. These are the individuals who leave the most distinctive legacy, and Lisa Jardine was one of them. Scholarly in science as well as literature and history, she spanned the “two cultures”. She was politically engaged and campaigned for many causes and institutions. Above all, she had a zest for communicating and was able to engage with a wide public, young and old.
I first met Lisa when she was a young lecturer at Cambridge University. Later, when I was president of the Royal Society, we were fortunate to have her support and her advice on our archives. She was especially excited to recover a folio by Robert Hooke, containing long-lost records of the society’s meetings.
Her response to a cancer diagnosis in 2004 was to work even harder. During the last decade she presented dozens of radio talks and a fine series on the history of science; she was active on innumerable panels and committees. We both resigned from the board of the Royal Institution, in protest against actions we thought deplorable.
One of her most surprising decisions, in 2008, was to become chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, a challenging role involving novel ethical issues. It was perhaps in homage to her father, Jacob Bronowski, that she felt she should do some scientific service to the nation.
In her public and private roles she was a supreme life-enhancer. Her death has come as a shock and sadness to those of us who hoped that her effervescent enthusiasm would inspire us for at least another decade.
THE GUARDIAN
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2009
001 My hero / Oscar Wilde by Michael Holroyd
002 My hero / Harley Granville-Barker by Richard Eyre
003 My hero / Edward Goldsmith by Zac Goldsmith
004 My hero / Fridtjof Nansen by Sara Wheeler
005 My hero / Mother Mercedes Lawler IBVM by Antonia Fraser
006 My hero / Ted Hughes by Michael Morpurgo (KISS)
002 My hero / Harley Granville-Barker by Richard Eyre
003 My hero / Edward Goldsmith by Zac Goldsmith
004 My hero / Fridtjof Nansen by Sara Wheeler
005 My hero / Mother Mercedes Lawler IBVM by Antonia Fraser
006 My hero / Ted Hughes by Michael Morpurgo (KISS)
2010
036 My hero / Rober Lowell by Jonathan Raban (Kiss)
2011
100 My hero / Tomas Tranströmer (Kiss)
2012
2013
2014
2015
267 My hero / EL Doctorow by Michael Schmidt
268 My hero / Tom Gunn by Andrew McMillan
269 My hero / Beryl Markham by Paula McLain
268 My hero / Tom Gunn by Andrew McMillan
269 My hero / Beryl Markham by Paula McLain
272 My hero / Henning Mankell by Ian Rankin
273 My hero / Toni Morrinson by Marlon James
274 My hero / Lisa Jardine by Martin Rees
273 My hero / Toni Morrinson by Marlon James
274 My hero / Lisa Jardine by Martin Rees
2016
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