Without my friend and colleague Melanie Quin, who has died aged 66, British and European hands-on science centres would be very different places.
In the mid-1980s, the Nuffield Foundation’s interactive science project was set up as a resource and information exchange for the hands-on science centres just starting up in the UK, and Melanie was appointed as its director. She set about connecting, advising and encouraging everyone involved, providing a vital connection between existing centres and new startups, such as Satrosphere, now the Aberdeen Science Centre, and the Exploratory, in Bristol, as well as linking UK centres with more established places in the US and elsewhere. She had clearly found her calling.
