Question: If you became successful/famous for a breakthrough, invention, idea and/or any other aspect, what would it be? Craig's answer was a good one, and I was wondering what you'd want!

Nicholas Younger answered on 8 Mar 2017:

I’d love to become successful for helping increase diversity in science by helping minority groups move into university and academia. Right now there can be obstacles for people of minority groups, like ethnic minorities, disabled people, LGBT+ people, people from poor backgrounds.

For people in these groups (I’m both gay and disabled so have a bit of experience with this), school can have additional difficulties and can be a challenging and emotional time – this means that studying and exams might suffer, and opportunities to go to university might slip by.

Later in life, things tend to settle down, but the chance to go to university and find employment in academia gets harder as you get older.

I would like to create entry points and alternative paths aimed at helping older individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds reach their full potential later in life and have their equal chance to contribute to academia.