James Van Allen Quotes

As a child I was very into gadgets and machines and robots. The idea of experimenting with machines to create art was always something I tinkered with.

If I could do anything, I'd be an engineer of some sort. I used to build robots.

Tinkering is something we need to know how to do in order to keep something like the space station running. I am a tinkerer by nature.

I liked to work in a shop down in the basement and invent things and build gadgets.

When I was a teenager, I was a huge computer nerd. I went to computer programming camp. I went to space camp.

As a boy, I was deeply interested in scientific ideas, electrical and mechanical, and I read almost everything I could find on the subject. I was attracted more by the hardware and construction aspects than by the scientific issues.

Other kids went out and beat each other up or played baseball, and I built electronics.

Everything that wasn't invented by God is invented by an engineer.

As a former competitor, robot combat is near and dear to my heart. I enjoy the mix of creativity and mayhem that are essential to this sport.

I've always been interested in mechanical things. I think I must have been heavily influenced by my father, who is also very good with his hands. He liked to build things. I always loved to watch him do it, and I loved to build things on my own.

Machines cannot make machines, unless back of them all are the brains and toil of men.

I am not a politician. I am an engineer who has spent most of his career working in factories that manufacture the world's most advanced devices.

I have a fondness for technology. It's great to spend hours puttering around with mechanical things gotten from junkyards and visualizing what their use might be. Especially if you come across a gadget or tool and you don't know what it is and you try to figure it out. I'm fascinated by processes, whatever they might be.

As more girls get basic schooling, larger numbers will move up the educational ladder - some to pursue science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. That's important because workplaces around the world, especially in many developing and emerging-market countries, are becoming more automated, favouring workers with technical skills.

If you talk about STEM education, the best way to introduce anyone to STEM or get their curiosity going on, it's Minecraft.

I was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and from an early age was interested in technology and engineering.

Studying engineering was natural for me; I was always interested in technology and building things.

I got no thrill from solving an integral equation, but I did get a thrill from building an exotic piece of equipment that worked.

These robotic arms, provided by Canada, have been invaluable in allowing us to build, maintain, and repair space structures, and I've been very fortunate to have gotten to operate them.

I consider myself a nerd. I love science and technology.

To take on the jobs of tomorrow, students must become more than good test takers. They need to become makers who design, sketch, build, and prototype. And their classrooms will need more than a chalkboard and a set of textbooks.

A brilliant mind having a eureka moment could not create an Intel microprocessor containing a billion transistors any more than one person could dream up a Boeing 787 from scratch.

We will always have STEM with us. Some things will drop out of the public eye and will go away, but there will always be science, engineering, and technology. And there will always, always be mathematics.

I was a science guy in school, numbers and science and formula: what made things work and how to bring them forward - not what happened.

Even when I was young, I would build things with Lego or make 'robots' out of cereal boxes - long before I learned metalwork. The desire to build was always there.