The Bank of England is to ask the public to nominate a scientist as the face of the new plastic £50 note, with Ada Lovelace, a 19th-century mathematician known as the “grandmother of computing”, an early frontrunner alongside Stephen Hawking and Nobel prizewinner Dorothy Hodgkin.
In the light of the “Boaty McBoatface” fiasco, the Bank said it would not be bound by a public vote but would instead open a six-week window for names of scientists to be put forward for its “character selection process”.
The scientist must be British and dead, as the Queen is the only living person featured on a Bank of England note. The person could be either male or female, although as no woman has ever featured on the reverse side of the £50 note the Bank is expected to come under pressure to select one.
Women in the frame include Lovelace, the chemist Dorothy Hodgkin and Rosalind Franklin, who played a crucial role in decoding the structure of DNA. Hawking, who died in March, is likely to be a popular choice.
The move immediately sparked debate among scientists with Prof Brian Cox tweeting his support for Hawking.
Brian Cox ✔@ProfBrianCox I’d like to see Stephen Hawking on the £50 note. He made invaluable contributions over half a century to our understanding of cosmology, the early universe and black holes. He also inspired thousands of scientists + millions of people, me included, through his books and lectures. The Guardian ✔@guardian New £50 note: Bank of England asks public to nominate scientist https://trib.al/ZPcZVg6 11:12 AM – Nov 2, 2018 10.7K 2,601 people are talking about this
✔@ProfBrianCox
I’d like to see Stephen Hawking on the £50 note. He made invaluable contributions over half a century to our understanding of cosmology, the early universe and black holes. He also inspired thousands of scientists + millions of people, me included, through his books and lectures.
✔@guardian
New £50 note: Bank of England asks public to nominate scientist https://trib.al/ZPcZVg6
10.7K
2,601 people are talking about this
Although the bank would generally expect candidates to have been deceased for 20 years or more, it said Hawking would still be eligible and it expected to receive nominations for him.
The Bank governor, Mark Carney, said: “I am delighted that the new £50 will celebrate the UK’s contribution to science. There is a wealth of individuals whose work has shaped how we think about the world and who continue to inspire people today.”
Venki Ramakrishnan, the president of the Royal Society, the UK’s leading academy of scientists, said: “I would personally pick Dorothy Hodgkin, the only female Briton to have won a science Nobel prize. We can thank Dorothy for revealing the three-dimensional structures of many biologically important molecules such as penicillin, insulin and vitamin B12, as well as inspiring several generations of leading crystallographers.”
The decision to select a scientist ends a number of popular campaigns launched in recent weeks. A petition to have the £50 note feature England and Leicester City football defender Harry Maguire riding an inflatable unicorn won the support of 53,000 people. It proved more popular than a rival petition to “Put Maggie [Thatcher] on the Fifty,” which garnered just 18,000 signatures.
For more read the guardian
