#Rachel riley maths tv

At St Mary’s we all thoroughly enjoyed having osteoarchaeologist Professor Alice Roberts as our guest at school this week.

#Rachel riley maths tv

I’m sure we can all name quite a list of them who appear regularly on TV across a whole range of disciplines, from Mary Beard in Classics to Marcus du Sautoy in Maths, and many more – Helen Castor and Lucy Worsley on the historical side for instance. No, what I actually wanted to focus on to mark National Science Week was where academics (whether they’re scientists, mathematicians, engineers, or anything else) stand in terms of national profile today.Īctually, I think there’s a good argument for saying that, in some respects, they’ve never been so well-represented. I’m not writing this blog to be sniffy about Countdown hosts, though (if I was I’d start with the woeful Nick Hewer, who is surely living proof that being Sir Alan’s PR man and sidekick is a much less effective qualification for TV presenter-ship than a Cambridge Maths degree).

Rachel Riley does not find Maths tough but one could argue that the pressures of the media do mean that she has to make herself look like a Barbie! In 1992 Mattel produced a talking Barbie which said, ‘Math class is tough.’ This Teen Talk Barbie was hastily withdrawn from the market after a group of American women university professors protested that it perpetuated stereotypes about girls and maths. It’s often very difficult arithmetic and an impressive skill, but that alone does not make either of them a mathematician. Between her telegenic looks and her training she’s eminently well-qualified to carry out the role she plays doing arithmetic on Countdown (and particularly its irreverent Friday night counterpart) just as her predecessor Carol Vorderman was before her for many years.

Rachel Riley is a TV presenter with a degree in Maths from Cambridge. Well, let me start by answering my own question here: she’s not well-known for being a mathematician and I doubt if she would claim to be.