Voting Station

Heinz Wolff

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Scientist

The Resume

    (April 29, 1928-December 15, 2017)
    Born in Berlin, Germany
    Scientist and TV presenter
    Director of the Biomedical Engineering Division of the National Institute for Medical Research (1962-70)
    Founder of the Brunel Institute for Bioengineering
    Scientific advisor for Project Juno, the private British-Soviet joint venture that sent Helen Sharman to the Mir space station (1991)
    Presented the BBC2 show ‘The Great Egg Race’ (1979-86)

Why he might be annoying:

    He was unable to get into Cambridge because of his poor grasp of Latin.
    With his bow ties and tufts of hair, he looked like the stereotype of an eccentric scientist.
    He insisted on being credited as Professor Heinz Wolff.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He and his family were Jews who fled Nazi Germany, arriving in Britain on the day World War II started.
    Before graduating college, he invented a machine for counting patients’ blood cells.
    He and Joan Stephenson were married for 61 years until her death.
    He coined the word ‘bioengineering.’ (1954)
    He noted about his TV appearances, ‘The BBC had faith in me because I didn’t need a script and I was comfortable talking in front of a camera lens.’
    He was awarded the Edinburgh Medal for outstanding contribution by a scientist to society (1992).

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 4 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 9 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 66 Votes: 69.70% Annoying