More than 350 of the Science Museum’s most ardent supporters last night celebrated what Director Ian Blatchford described as an “exceptional year” for the museum, and the contribution of Chairman of the Board of Trustees Douglas Gurr.
The event was also distinguished by a speech given by the Director of the world’s most prestigious institute of theoretical research.
Usually, the man to hand out the honours at the Annual Director’s Dinner, Dr. Gurr was last night on the receiving end as he was named a Science Museum Fellow in recognition of the great impact he’s had in a decade as a trustee and four years as Chairman. Trustee Howard Covington praised Dr. Gurr’s “enthusiasm energy and sheer hard work” as he announced the accolade to guests that included the new Culture Secretary, Sajid Javid MP, Betty Jackson, Deborah Bull and Charles Simonyi.
In his speech, Director Ian Blatchford remarked on how the huge success of our Collider exhibition shows what can be achieved by “dumbing up”. He also gave a glimpse of forthcoming highlights, notably the Information Age gallery and Cosmonauts exhibition and drew attention to the museum’s leading role in inspiring the next generation of scientists and engineers, most recently as part of the launch of the Your Life campaign.
A wide range of scientists and academic luminaries were present, including Sir Ralph Kohn, Lord Rees, Professor Jim Al-Khalili, Helen Czerski and Professor Marcus du Sautoy and leading journalists including John Mulholland of the Observer, Sumit Paul-Choudhury of New Scientist, Pallab Ghosh of the BBC, Louise Jury of the Evening Standard and Geoffrey Carr of the Economist. There were also politicians, such as Shadow Science spokesman Liam Byrne and the Chairman of the Commons Science and Technology Committee, Andrew Miller.
The guests were treated to a speech, including a non-popping balloon experiment, by Robbert Dijkgraaf, Director and Leon Levy Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, who characterised the key to science – and life – as “guessing what is at the other side of the hill”. As an example of both the challenges and wonder of this game he pointed to the time between the recent discovery of the Higgs boson, celebrated in our Collider exhibition and the papers by Peter Higgs and others that had first postulated its existence. Or as Professor Dijkraaf put it, “the five decades before this idea, crazy enough to be true, became reality”.
Professor Dijkgraaf spoke of scientists’ duty engage the public by sharing their “stories and fascination, latest insights and discoveries” adding that he couldn’t think of a more appropriate location to do so than the museum, since “the universe cannot wish for a more perceptive eye than the Science Museum”. A talented artist, his own perceptive eye picked out Crick and Watson’s molecular model of the Double Helix as a particular favourite among the objects in the Making the Modern World gallery that provided a regal setting for a grand evening.
The night was brought to a fitting close by Dr Gurr reflecting one some of the highlights of the past four years at the Science Museum Group, from the Codebreaker exhibition and launch of Media Space to the Museum of Science and Industry joining the Group, the reunion of Mallard with its surviving sister locomotives and the record numbers of visitors who came to the Science Museum in the past 12 months, exceeding 3.3 million.
Pete Dickinson is Head of Communication at the Science Museum.