STEM Workshops in Leicester

Leicester has a rich STEM heritage spanning from textiles innovation to the frontiers of space exploration. The city's framework knitting industry drove mechanical innovation from the eighteenth century. The University of Leicester pioneered space science research from the 1960s, building instruments that have flown on space missions since 1967. In 2012, the university excavated a Leicester car park, and in 2013 confirmed using ground-penetrating radar, radiocarbon dating, and DNA analysis that the remains found there were King Richard III, making worldwide headlines.

Professor Sir Ken Pounds, based at the University of Leicester, was a pioneer of X-ray astronomy and led the development of space-borne instruments, with Leicester-built detectors flying on missions from the Ariel V satellite in 1974 onwards. Sir Alec Jeffreys, Professor of Genetics at the University of Leicester, invented DNA fingerprinting in 1984, revolutionising forensic science and criminal justice worldwide. It was first used in a criminal case in Leicestershire in 1986. Professor Turi King, who studied genetics at the University of Leicester and led its DNA verification team, confirmed the identity of the remains of King Richard III in 2013, using mitochondrial DNA analysis to establish the identity of the skeleton beyond reasonable doubt.

Leicester is now home to Space Park Leicester, a nationally significant facility that brings together the University of Leicester's space research expertise, the National Space Centre, and commercial space technology companies under one roof. The university continues to build instruments for international space missions, including contributions to European Space Agency programmes, maintaining a track record of instruments in orbit continuously since 1967. The city has growing strengths in life sciences, advanced textiles, and digital industries.

Young people in Leicester have access to genuinely unique career pathways in space science and technology, matched by very few other UK cities. Space Park Leicester offers routes into satellite engineering, Earth observation data analysis, and space instrument development. The University of Leicester provides specialist degrees in physics with space science, engineering, and computer science. The National Space Centre provides education and outreach roles. De Montfort University offers strong applied technology and engineering programmes with industry placements.