High-flying entrepreneur helps teenage astrophysicist aim for the moon

A West Midlands-based tech entrepreneur, who was the first in his family to go to university, has dedicated the past six months to supporting an aspiring young astrophysicist to also become the first in his family to attend university.

Rob Laker, who founded his data consultancy GEL Data Solutions in 2007 after studying astrophysics at UCL, gives free weekly one-to-one Physics tuition to 17-year-old K-Ryan, a year-12 student from Ormiston Forge Academy in Cradley Heath.

Laker tutors K-Ryan through education charity The Access Project, which offers intensive university application support to students from disadvantaged backgrounds and pairs them with high-flying graduate tutors.

Laker tutors K-Ryan through education charity The Access Project, which offers intensive university application support to students from disadvantaged backgrounds and pairs them with high-flying graduate tutors.

Laker says he gets as much out of the experience of tutoring as his student does: “I like the school I’m dealing with, because it reminds me of the school I was at and there is that satisfying side of it – seeing them do well.”

‘Shared passion’

“Whenever I see them get a good mark in an exam, it’s a sense that I have actually helped them out in some way and that is very satisfying.”

Laker feels strongly about giving something back – his firm now provides world-class data analysis for everything from off-shore windfarms, to decommissioning of nuclear power plants.

His student K-Ryan says the tutoring has boosted his grades significantly and he now has his sights set on studying either Physics at Oxford or Astrophysics at UCL or Bristol universities.

K-Ryan said: “I really want to become an astrophysicist and I don’t think I‘d be able to do it on my own. I really want to thank him for all he’s done and he’s really done a lot.”

“Rob has a Masters in Astrophysics and our shared passion makes for really interesting discussions! When he asked if I wanted to actually observe stars, constellations and the moon using high end telescopes and observing equipment, I jumped at the chance!