The annual ICG conference includes the leading career guidance exhibition in the UK. The exhibition is an opportunity to visit representatives of Sector Skills Councils, educational institutions, and suppliers of careers related products and services.

We are delighted to annouce that this year the exhibition will be opened by Anu Ojha and Maggie Aderin-Pocock representing the British National Space Centre.

Anu and Maggie will be available during the exhibition and over lunch to meet delegates who would like to find out more about the projects that they are involved in. The Institute of Career Guidance is committed to highlighting the array of opportunities that exist in STEM related careers and the wide range of routes into these professions. 

Anu Ojha is Director of Education and Space Communication at the National Space Centre, Leicester. Formerly Director of Science and Mathematics at the largest Specialist Science College in the UK, he was awarded Advanced Skills Teacher status by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) in 2003 and is Director of the Space Academy partnership between the National Space Centre, the Universities of Nottingham and Leicester, the Science Learning Centre network and STEMNET.

Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock studied at Imperial College where she obtained her degree in Physics and her PhD in Mechanical Engineering. Since then she has spent her career to date making novel, bespoke instrumentation in both the industrial and academic environments. Managing multidisciplinary teams, these instruments have ranged from hand held land mine detectors to an optical subsystems for the James Webb Space Telescope, (The JWST is a joint ESA/NASA venture due to replace the Hubble Space Telescope around 2013).

Maggie works at Astrium Ltd in Portsmouth where she leads the optical instrumentation group. Here she manages a range of project making satellite sub-systems designed to monitor wind speeds and other variables in the Earths atmosphere. These system are made under the European Space Agency's (ESA) Living Planet programme and are designed to improve our current knowledge of climate change.

Maggie also has a science in society fellowship from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) which enabling her to engage the public with the science work that she loves. The fellowship is held at the University College London (UCL).

To further share her love of science, Maggie has also set up her own company Science Innovation Ltd. Through this Maggie conducts "Tours of the Universe" and other public engagement activities, these show school children and adults the wonders of space. To date she has given these talks to 10,000 people across the globe and has just produce a film "Space in the UK", which features a "Big Brother" spaceship on a journey to Mars. This is being distributed for free through schools and science festivals across the country.