Natalie Duffield

 Women in STEM Art Trail  No Responses »
Jun 222021
 

North Edinburgh Arts, EH4 4TZ

Portrait of Natalie Duffield with a background referencing binary code, wifi, and circut boards on the wall of North Edinburgh Arts
Natalie Duffield by Shona Hardie; image by Ian Georgeson Photography

When she was just 13, Natalie Duffield decided that she didn’t want to go to university but instead wanted to work. She began her career in IT in temporary, junior roles but convinced her bosses to give her a start in sales, a traditionally male-dominated field. It took time, but Natalie developed a successful career in IT sales and then went on to become the CEO of InTechnology SmartCitie, which provides free WiFi in central Edinburgh. Now Natalie is championing digital innovation whilst inspiring young women to follow non-traditional careers. Natalie wants to see more courses that are attractive to women, a work culture that assumes women can learn technology, and for all women to know that they can train for any role.

Astronomical Instruments at National Museum of Scotland

 History of Astronomy  No Responses »
Jun 222019
 

Chambers St, Edinburgh, EH1 1JF

The large black and yellow Schmidt camerascope on display at the National Museum of Scotland

Royal Observatory Edinburgh’s 16/24-inch (0.4/0.6 m) Schmidt camerascope on display at National Museum of Scotland (© National Museum of Scotland)

The Astronomy Technology collections of the National Museum of Scotland contain a variety of artefacts, from orreys (mechanical solar system simulators) to a refracting imaging telescope. One of the larger artefacts on display is the Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array, or SCUBA, an instrument to take images of radio-frequency light emitted from dust in nearby galaxies. This red cylindrical device was installed at the James Clark Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) on Mauna Kea in Hawaii between 1997-2005 and produced some of the most impactful astronomy results at the time, surpassed only by the Hubble Space Telescope. This including significantly imporving the understanding of how galaxies are evolving and how new starts are being formed. One of the key partners in the consortium developing SCUBA, and its successor SCUBA-2, was the UK Astronomy Technology Centre, which is based at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh on Blackford Hill.

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Image of SCUBA mounted at JCMT at Mauna Kea

SCUBA mounted at JCMT at Mauna Kea (© Royal Observatory Edinburgh)