Classic Desert Island Discs: Professor Monica Grady

Another chance to hear Monica Grady, Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences at the Open University, interviewed by Kirsty Young in July 2015. Well-known in scientific circles, at NASA and the European Space Agency, she came to the attention of the general public with her enthusiastic celebration when, as part of the Rosetta project, the probe Philae became the first-ever spacecraft to land on a comet - 67P - in November 2014. The spacecraft had taken ten years to journey through space and a decade was spent on the preparations. She was born in 1958 in Leeds as the eldest of eight children. She studied chemistry and geology at Durham University and did her PhD on carbon in meteorites at Cambridge, where she worked closely with Professor Colin Pillinger on the Beagle 2 project to Mars. She first worked at the OU in 1983 before joining the Department of Mineralogy of the Natural History Museum, becoming Head of the Meteorites and Cosmic Mineralogy Division. She is married to Professor Ian Wright who is one of the lead scientists on the Rosetta cometary mission and they have one son. She was awarded a CBE in 2012 for services to space sciences and asteroid (4731) was named "Monicagrady" in her honour. DISC ONE: Meat Loaf - Bat out of Hell DISC TWO: Gilbert & Sullivan - When the Foeman Bares His Steel from The Pirates of Penzance, conducted by Isidore Godfrey, played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, sung by the D’Oyly Carte Opera Chorus DISC THREE: Brahms’ St Anthony Chorale – played by Murray Perahia & Georg Solti DISC FOUR: Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water DISC FIVE: Ultravox - Vienna DISC SIX: Fanfare for the Open University from Leonard Salzedo’s Divertimento, played by Philip Jones Brass Ensemble DISC SEVEN: The Agnes Dei from Karl Jenkin’s The Armed Man, sung by the National Youth Choir of Great Britain, played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra DISC EIGHT: Smetana‘s Ma Vlast (My Homeland) played by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Vaclav Talich Producer: Cathy Drysdale.