Guys, what 60s TV character most influenced you to pursue a STEM career?

[Van Johnston]

Poll adapted from a workplace discussion this week that drifted far off the original topic of robots. Keep it clean please. Sorry aviatrixes, you will need to create your own poll.

 

[Crashnburn]

None of the above. It wasn’t known as STEM, then, but it’s always been in my blood.

 

[Sluggo63]

Other: Barbara Gordon

 

[FormerHangie]

I never pursued a STEM career, more like fell into it. Sometimes your job chooses you.

 

[X3 Skier]

Always loved planes. When my eyes went bad, if I couldn’t fly for the USAF, I decided to help design them.

Sky King, Penny and the Songbird were a never miss experience in my long ago youth.

Cheers

 

[Bulldog573]

Scotty on Star Trek. He could never generate quite enough power, and yet the Enterprise somehow completed every mission.

 

[GRG55]

Miss Emma Peel:

 

[GRG55]

Scotty on Star Trek. He could never generate quite enough power, and yet the Enterprise somehow completed every mission.

Just like the Cessna 150s I learned to fly in.

 

[Half Fast]

Emma Peel for the win!

 

[asicer]

So you have to be a geezer to vote?

 

[GRG55]

So you have to be a geezer to vote?

Yes. Think of it as inverted age discrimination.

 

[Half Fast]

Yes. Think of it as inverted age discrimination.

Inverted, perverted, tomayto, tomahto.....

 

[JOhnH]

Miss Emma Peel:

Even as a kid, I always wanted to see Emma Peal.

 

[GeorgeC]

Mr. Wizard.

 

[cgrab]

The guy on TV that got me into STEM was Neil Armstrong. He wasn't on for long but it made a big impact on me.

 

[EdFred]

NOTA. I wasn't alive then, and I bailed on the engineering career after 8 years for a job that pays 3-4 times more.

 

[FormerHangie]

So you have to be a geezer to vote?

Non necessarily, there are always reruns.

 

[rtk11]

Mr. Spock mostly inspired science in me...



But Dianna Rigg got me watching 60's reruns...

 

[Warlock]

 

[Kenny Phillips]

Always loved planes. When my eyes went bad, if I couldn’t fly for the USAF, I decided to help design them.

Sky King, Penny and the Songbird were a never miss experience in my long ago youth.

Cheers

Funny, I tried to join USAF right after high school to be a hot-shot fighter jock, and was told that "with those glasses, the best we can do is a navigator on a C-130" or something similar. I did end up as a civilian programmer for them from 1995-2000, just by happenstance.
Sky King rocked—at least when I was very young. I've watched a few episodes recently; one can never go home again, as they say.

 

[steingar]

Was never inspired by fictional characters, always by real ones. Guys like Einstein and Oppenheimer. But boy did I have some serious hots of Daphne. Even as a little kid I didn't want to see Scooby or Shaggy, I wanted Daphne.

 

[MuseChaser]

Emma Peal, definitely. I had a '93 Range Rover Classic LWB that I loved, and spent a lot of time underneath... I named her Emma.

A very close second... Julie Newmar's Catwoman..

 

[Stan Cooper]

So you have to be a geezer to vote?

What if you're older than a geezer?

My decision to make my career in what is now called STEM was made in the early 1950s when I read the 1947 book, "Juan of Manila," a true story about a boy in the Philippines who cobbled together a radio transmitter during the WW2 Japanese occupation. It inspired me to get my ham license at age 12 and the rest is history.

My mom wouldn't let us get a TV as she thought it would interfere with our homework.

 

[Timbeck2]

So you have to be a geezer to vote?

I assume you'd have to know what STEM and words like "aviatrixes" mean, which is why I didn't vote.

 

[Sac Arrow]

I assume you'd have to know what STEM and words like "aviatrixes" mean, which is why I didn't vote.

Okay, I Googled it. Not "aviatrixes" as I can figure that one out.

But as to the OP's question, Mary Ann hands down. She wasn't a career influence, I always just had the hots for her. She reminded me of my best friend's mom. (Don't tell my best friend about that, shhhhh.)

Baby is looking a little harsh these days though...

 

[Zeldman]

 

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

The real stable genius.

 

[EdFred]

I see I was an inspiration before I was even around.

 

[MuseChaser]

The real stable genius.

Now THAT'S a horse of a different ... wait... ummm.... shade of grey?

 

[X3 Skier]

NOTA. I wasn't alive then, and I bailed on the engineering career after 8 years for a job that pays 3-4 times more.

Then why aren’t you flying a Cirrus Vision Jet or at least a SR-22

Cheers

 

[X3 Skier]

I was and still am insanely jealous of John Steed.

Cheers

 

[EdFred]

Then why aren’t you flying a Cirrus Vision Jet or at least a SR-22

Cheers

They don't like grass strip operations.

And I'm closer to retirement than I should be, so I'm kind of putting that money away.

 

[Dana]

This thread seems to be less about inspiring young men to get into STEM, and more about making young men want to get into... never mind...

 

[flyingron]

All of those are too new. I was a big Fireball XL-5 junkie as a kid (my first school lunchbox was a Fireball XL-5 one).

Dr. Venus:

 

[GRG55]

NOTA. I wasn't alive then, and I bailed on the engineering career after 8 years for a job that pays 3-4 times more.

I was thinking of doing something similar. But I was never very good at chemistry...

 

[Half Fast]

Was never inspired by fictional characters, always by real ones. Guys like Einstein and Oppenheimer. But boy did I have some serious hots of Daphne. Even as a little kid I didn't want to see Scooby or Shaggy, I wanted Daphne.

How could you even notice Daphne when Velma was around? And being the brainiac, she was MUCH more of a STEM inspiration.

 

[Half Fast]

I assume you'd have to know what STEM and words like "aviatrixes" mean, which is why I didn't vote.

Is an aviatrix a dominatrix with a pilot certificate?

 

[Half Fast]

This thread seems to be less about inspiring young men to get into STEM, and more about making young men want to get into... never mind...

Well, after all, the only reason I became an engineer was for the groupies.

I was cruelly misinformed....

 

[BrianNC]

I'm assuming if I don't know what STEM means then I don't have a career in it.

 

[EdFred]

Seamstress, Theater, Evangelist, Masseuse.

I'm pretty sure that's right.