Curiosity and Analysis Not a household name, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin is one of
the unsung heroes of 20th century science. Born in Wendover, England, as Cecilia Payne, her father died
when she was just four years old, forcing her mother to raise the family alone. With her mother deciding to spend no money on her higher education, Cecilia won a scholarship to Cambridge University, where she discovered a lifelong love of astronomy. Here, she completed her studies but did not receive a degree because she was a woman. For this reason, Cecilia left Britain to study astronomy at Harvard. In 1925, her dissertation on the chemical constitution of the stars was described as "undoubt- edly the most brilliant Ph.D. thesis ever written in astronomy". She observed that the sun must comprise a million times more hydrogen than believed, and vastly more helium. Dissuaded from publishing this by her tutor, Henry Norris Russell, her con- tribution to astronomy remained unrecognised, especially after Russell published the same fi ndings himself four years later. Nevertheless, Payne continued at the cutting edge of science.
Her observations and analysis of variable stars laid the basis for all subsequent work on them. She was the fi rst woman ever to be made a full professor by Harvard University and is an unrecognised genius of science.
— Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin's natural brilliance could not be dimmed by the conventions of a society still agonising over whether to give women the vote. She remains a brilliant role model for everyone who has struggled against societal expectations just to be themselves. Bernardo Moya
Bill Gates
Competitive and Precise. Born in 1955, the founder of software giant Microsoft has a
staggering personal fortune estimated at around US $65 billion. His world infl uence is diffi cult to overstate. As a teenager, Gates fi rst programmed a computer to play tic-tac-toe, then exploited bugs in his school computers to allow him more computing time. Banned from computing at age 14, he offered to fi nd other bugs in the software, studying code at the computer company offi ces. Gates went to Harvard but dropped out to form Microsoft at
just 21 years of age. In his fi rst fi ve years of business, Gates' dedication to detail saw him personally review every line of code written in Microsoft, often changing it. He aggressively broadened Microsoft's range, becoming known for toughness and competitiveness. One executive recalls that after beating Gates at a videogame 35 out of 37 times, the next time they met Gates "won or tied every game. He had studied the game until he solved it. That is a competitor." However, as his wealth grew, Gates began to fi nd moral purpose in his work. He now organ- ises numerous charities through his Bill and Melinda Gates Foun- dation, offering free information to encourage graduates to deal with the "hard questions" of existence. Always a competitor, some of his charity projects have been criticised for their desire to make a return that can then be used for new projects. Nev- ertheless, alongside Warren Buffet, he has pledged to give away 95% of his wealth. Bill Gates now is a far remove from a teenaged computer hacker, and shows just how unexpected the twists and turns of life can be.
— The choices Bill Gates made and the way he saw and seized his opportunities are inspirational - as is his commitment to doing good works! Bernardo Moya
Our virtues and our failings are inseparable, like force and matter. When they separate, man is no more.