'Science Spotlight' 1/12 Professor Heinz Wolff

I thought I would create a regular feature for this blog page. A feature I hope will be of interest to all. Each month I shall produce a fact file entitled ‘Science Spotlight’; that will feature someone of scientific interest. Presented in a simplistic style, reminiscent of traditional children’s education books and comics. They will provide a brief biography of that person.

Professor Heinz Siegried Wolff was born in 1928 and qualified in physiology and physics in 1954. Subsequently, whilst with the medical research council, he chose to work on the interface between engineering and the biological sciences, calling himself a bioengineer, thus giving a name to the new discipline. He became head of the divisions of bioengineering at the national institute for medical research and subsequently at the clinical research centre. Moving to Brunel University in 1983, he founded the Brunel institute for bioengineering, the only organisation in the United Kingdom to work on the instrumentation problems of conducting biological research in the weightless environment of a spacecraft. The institute holds contacts for work in space research, medical instrumentation and technology for the improvement of the quality of life for the elderly. In 1992 he was recipient of the Edinburgh medal, awarded in recognition of an outstanding contribution by a scientist to society. The professor is well known to a whole generation as a television personality, presenting scientific and engineering “entertainment”. Programmes such as ‘The Great Egg Race’, known to have started many young people on careers in science and technology.

Information source: the Brunel University
© Arfon Jones 2010. All images are copyrighted throughout the world.