Margaret Thatcher, chemist
The former British prime minister studied a bachelor of science at the University of Oxford, graduating with second-class honours. She specialised in X-ray crystallography under the supervision of Dorothy Hodgkin, who went on to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Working as a chemical researcher after graduation, Thatcher eventually moved to Dartford to start her political career. She continued to work as a researcher in order to support herself, making her breakthrough as a chemist by helping develop emulsifiers for ice cream. Thatcher was one of the first world leaders to tackle the issue of global warming. She founded the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the British Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research (and fomented a coal miners’ strike). She, like the Queen, favoured geldings, though the Queen liked them on the racecourse, while Thatcher kept them in Cabinet.
Jack Shainman: Founder and Owner of Jack Shainman Gallery
Even as a kid growing up in Williamstown, Mass., Jack Shainman was honing his eye for great art. The son of a music professor, he was a regular at nearby museums like the Clark Art Institute, and he cut his teeth on collecting by buying work from local art students. Now, 30 years into his career as a gallery owner, Shainman is responsible for helping to cultivate some of the most significant names in contemporary art today, from painter Kerry James Marshall to photographer and multimedia artist Carrie Mae Weems to Ghanaian sculptor El Anatsui. Through the decades, one thing has remained constant: his passion for finding an audience for underseen visionaries. To be a good gallery owner, Shainman says, you have to be fully committed to the artists you represent. “When you show something in the gallery, you have to be ready to defend it—not everybody comes in and loves everything all the time.” This was certainly the case when he opened his first New York City gallery with his late partner Claude Simard, in 1986. Shainman held fast to representing creators whose work he truly believed was worthy, rather than catering to the tastes of the industry. But it wasn’t exactly a recipe for quick success. Several of the artists Shainman represented were people of color, and thanks to the underlying currents of racism in the art world—a problem that’s far from solved today—he struggled to get his roster of artists included in major art fairs and often met with reluctant clients. After Marshall’s first show with Shainman in 1993 wrapped up with a few unsold paintings, Shainman remembers the painter telling him, “I just don’t think people are ready to have pictures of black people in their living rooms.”
Angela Merkel, quantum chemist
The German chancellor excelled academically in high school, but after failing her physics she decided to pursue the subject at the University of Leipzig to prove she could master the subject. Dr Merkel graduated with a degree in physics and physical chemistry before earning a PhD in quantum chemistry from the German Academy of Sciences. She worked as a chemist at the academy until the fall of the Berlin Wall pushed her towards a career in politics. Dr Merkel has shown a sure touch in frightful circumstances: uniting East and West Germany, creating real wealth and showing humanity with immigrants.