mathematics

Katherine Mathieson

Katherine Mathieson is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Katherine Mathieson rather than just read about it. In short: Katherine Theresa Stewart Mathieson (born 17 August 1975) is the Director of the Royal Institution and former Chief Executive of the British Science Association. She previously led the science education projects at Nesta.

Key takeaways

Katherine Mathieson belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Katherine Mathieson to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Katherine Mathieson from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Katherine Theresa Stewart Mathieson (born 17 August 1975) is the Director of the Royal Institution and former Chief Executive of the British Science Association. She previously led the science education projects at Nesta.

Early life and education Mathieson was born on 17 August 1975 in Durham, the daughter of Martin and Susan Mathieson. She received her BSc in Natural Sciences from Selwyn College, Cambridge in 1996. She completed a Masters in Science Communication at Imperial College London in 1999. She earned two postgraduate diplomas, in Information Science from the City University of London in 2003 and in Voluntary Sector Management from Cass Business School in 2011.

Career Mathieson worked as a GP rep for Merck & Co. from 1996 to 1998. In 1999, she became a Science Information Officer for Science Line until joining the Forensic Science Service as an Information Scientist from 2000 to 2002. Mathieson led science education and enterprise education at Nesta from 2000. She contributed to the Institute of Physics' report Girls in the Physics Classroom. As Director of Education at the British Science Association, Mathieson coordinated outreach activities for school teachers and their students. Mathieson encourages others to take part in citizen science. In 2015 she joined the King's College London Youth Access and Equity Research and Practice Agenda. She took part in the UK Government's Science Communication enquiry in June 2015. In July 2016 Mathieson took up the role as chief executive of the British Science Association in July 2016. At the British Science Association she works to make science as fundamental to society. She launched Not Just for Scientists a campaign that looked for "ideas from people who would like to contribute to debate about science’s role in society". In 2017 Mathieson met the Duke of York. She is worried about the teaching of practical science at schools. In 2018 she became concerned that Brian Cox and David Attenborough did not make science accessible to all of the general public. Mathieson has written for the Huffington Post, The Guardian, The Independent and Open Access Government. She appeared on the radio and been on several podcasts. Mathieson is a Girlguiding leader and is a trustee at the Royal Commonwealth Society. She is a Brownie leader. She has taken part in a PricewaterhouseCoopers Tech She Can charter. Since spring 2022 Mathieson has been Director of the Royal Institution.

References

External links Katherine Mathieson on X

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Katherine Mathieson

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Katherine Mathieson claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Katherine Mathieson before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Katherine Mathieson ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Katherine Mathieson

In research: Katherine Mathieson appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Katherine Mathieson in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Katherine Mathieson is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1975 births, 21st-century British scientists, 21st-century British women biologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Katherine Mathieson outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Katherine Mathieson in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Katherine Mathieson means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Katherine Mathieson out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Katherine Mathieson in simple terms?

Why does Katherine Mathieson matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Katherine Mathieson?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Katherine Mathieson.