How to make steel (twice)

Inspiring Scientists is a series of resources to help develop students’ understanding and awareness of science and the diversity of scientists. The video profiles were commissioned by the Royal Society and carried out as an oral history project by National Life Stories at the British Library.

The resources showcase the life stories of British scientists with minority ethnic heritage and cover issues such as being a minority in science, influences in their childhoods and the fun and importance of science both to themselves and to the wider community. The activities that accompany the profiles relate to the area of research that the scientist is involved in.

If you travel from the UK to France via the channel tunnel, your carriage is riding on rails made of a particular kind of steel that Harry Bhadeshia invented. He has also developed the world’s strongest armour - called ‘Super Bainite’ – in part through the discovery of a steel that seemed to sing. He has done all of this and more by applying physics and mathematics to predict what shapes will be made by crystals in metal, under certain conditions and with certain elements added or taken away. He arrived in London in 1970 after his Indian parents were forced to leave their home in Kenya by political changes. As young teenager he has worked his way up from technician, through part-time study, to become the University of Cambridge’s Tata Steel Professor of Metallurgy.