 Hi, my name is Ayushi Renjin, I'm 17 years old and I'm from the United States, specifically Florida and I am attending the 64th LIYSF and I'm joined here today with Sir Peter Rubin who attended the 10th LIYSF and I was wondering kind of trying to uncover what it was like for you at the 10th LIYSF and kind of how it shaped your experiences in science. So I was wondering if you could kind of introduce yourself and tell us about your experiences. Yeah, it'd be a pleasure to do that. I was, as you say, at the 10th forum and it seems a very long time ago now. And the thing I remember about it was that it probably took me about as long to get from where I lived to here as it took you to get from Florida to here. I came from a country in the far west of England, a country of Cornwall, which in those days was even more remote than it is now and it was an eight hour train journey to get from where I lived to London. I'd never been away from home before without a parent. So for me this was a big deal, quite apart from science, this was a big deal, living in a university hall of residence. It was quite something for me, you know. But the other thing I remember about it particularly was that I loved science at school. I had an inspirational chemistry teacher who just opened my eyes to horizons I didn't know were there. But as you know science at school is kind of abstract, quite a lot of it is a theory of science or chemistry, physical, whatever. And the thing I remember about being here for those two weeks is that I met a bunch of enthusiastic scientists who were applying science. All these years on I can't remember in detail much of what we did. But I do remember going to either Kodak or Ilford, which in those days were film processing plants. Somebody of your age will not know what a film is, but we would have cameras that had films in them that had to be sent off and were processed and came back as prints. And they talked about the chemistry of film processing, which I just loved. It was wonderful. And then somebody talked about the way that weed killers work and the chemistry of weed killers and the interaction of chemistry with biology and the introduction of biochemistry. So these are things I remember particularly about it. So the fact that I remember that much all these years on, it had some impact on me I think. So as I previously mentioned you attended the 10th LIYSF opening ceremony in general. So how did it feel 55 years later to do it? I think that, well first of all I thought the opening ceremony today was amazing. And I'm not saying that to be polite, it was truly amazing. The scale of it is so different when I was here. It was international but only just and far fewer people, far fewer people. And today I was just blown away by the number of countries in which people have come and how the organization has genuinely gone from strength to strength. It was on a relatively small scale in those days and it's genuinely global, isn't it? And the keynote address of course was truly inspiring. I sat there willing to be polite and listen but I was captivated by it. And the insight it gave into what might happen in the future. So I thought the opening ceremony was amazing. Yeah. I remember a lot of the kids were talking afterwards when the lights dimmed and everything. We were like, oh like jet lag is going to be very difficult to keep us up but we were all really engrossed in the entire thing. It was amazing. Could all of you like you will have an interest in science? You wouldn't be if you didn't. Yeah. So kind of just talking about your journey from Redwood Grammar School to becoming a professor in therapeutics and Dean of Nottingham Medical School is just very impressive. So could you elaborate on some key moments or experiences that shaped your decision to pursue a career in academics as well or academia as well as medicine? Yeah. I'm the first member of my family to go to university and I was a typical boy at school and I worked at what I enjoyed which was the sciences and did not work at what I didn't enjoy and in my fourth year at the school I remember the marks I got in two subjects. In chemistry I got 96% and in Latin I got 11% which was a record of the lowest mark ever in an exam in Latin in that school and in those days if we were going to go to the two what are perceived as the two top universities in the UK, Oxford and Cambridge in those days no matter what subject you did you had to pass an exam in Latin. So one day a day that changed my life really and I'm not exaggerating in the back of the chemistry lab my chemistry teacher poked me in the chest and said you have the ability to go to Cambridge you will not go to Cambridge if you don't pass your Latin exam a year from now therefore I've arranged for a Latin teacher to take you for two afternoons a week after school to get you through this exam no do you think it might be a good idea I think is you will do this and the reason I say it changed my life is as I said no background I come from a working class background no background of professionalism or education and he was by chemistry teacher who I really admired saying you'll go to Cambridge that was life changing he really was and my Latin teacher who is still alive did that on my past exam and I'm pleased to say I'm still in touch with him and when I got my knighthood I wrote to him and said thank you because you know he went the extra mile for me so that's how I came to go to Cambridge and why did I do medicine I love science and I was going to do biochemistry but I realized that I really was interested in and liked people and I thought well you know with that combination maybe medicine and so I went I so I'd applied not to do medicine I changed what I was going to do and I went for an interview at Cambridge I remember one question which I sat in front of an electric fire three bars of a fire blasting heat out to me and there were people either side of me interviewing the one that said to me now why do you want to be a doctor and don't say you want to help people you want to help people be a bank manager okay and sadly I don't remember my answer oh no it must have been sufficient because I got in so you've had like as we've seen throughout the entire interview you've had a very successful career in medicine and academia so what advice would you give to aspiring medical students be willing to take some risks with your career not with patients but with your career be prepared to test the untested in terms of what you do with your life I have taken on jobs that were insecure as it were in terms of job security but high prestige in terms of you know the research and whatever but to take some risks follow your curiosity I mean my study I was talking about was following my curiosity um and it was fun therefore because I was wanting to answer a question that I was asking but take some risks and and and follow your curiosity and and don't don't think life is going to be totally smooth because like I said you know doors will be slammed in your face for all sorts of reasons and make the most of where you find yourself I ended up on occasions doing a job I didn't want to do in a place I didn't want to be and loved it you know so just make the most of where you are so I assume curiosity killed the cat isn't something you really believe in no curiosity is a wonderful thing it drives science and is lovely and and the great thing about research is that we often you don't answer the question but if you do answer or go some way to answer the question oh that's such good fun such good fun thank you um anything else you'd like anyone anyone to know either about your life or your research or anything well I should it's been a pleasure talking to you thank you so much for talking with me it's it's been a great day thank you