Making medicines

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.

Mah Hussain-Gambles is a biker, a rock music fan and a pharmacologist. Her childhood began in Pakistan and ended in Hull, where she was the only pupil with Asian heritage at her comprehensive school. Following a degree in pharmacology, success as a scientist in industry and as social scientist in academia, she decided to use her scientific expertise to set up an ethical skincare company - Saaf Pure Skincare - using her own garage as the warehouse, her kitchen as the formulation department, and her phone and email as the customer relations department. She developed the company alongside bringing up her children; the company now sells products worldwide. Mah relates her interest in science to a childhood love of exploration, Star Trek, a tendency not to follow the crowd and a natural curiosity - or ‘nosiness’.