How did the richest people on the planet make their fortunes?
I'm Simon Jack.
And I'm Zing Singh.
Join us for Good Bad Billionaire.
Each episode we pick a billionaire and we find out how they made their money, like the comedian Jerry Seinfeld, the financier George Soros, the golf star Tiger Woods.
Then Simon and I have a decision to make.
Do we think they are good, bad or just another billionaire?
Good bad Billionaire.
Listen on BBC Sounds.
Hello.
I've had the pleasure of speaking to some very accomplished and well recognised scientists on this program, some of whom are even household names.
Very few of them, however, have been so widely known that they've been given a nationally accepted nickname.
But that's the case for my guest today, who first came to widespread attention in his role as Deputy Chief Medical officer during the COVID 19 pandemic.
Professor Jonathan Van Tam, or JVT, as was popularised by then Prime Minister Boris Johnson and subsequently the nation's media, has built a career based on a long held fascination with respiratory illness and infectious diseases.
He's worked across the public and private sectors, contributing significantly to improving our understanding of influenza and treatments to tackle the virus.
It's hard to believe that back in his teens, jvt, the man who advised the nation on pandemic precautions and helped make the UK's vaccine rollout possible, nearly didn't get the grades he needed to go to medical school.
But early challenges aside, Jonathan went on to discover a love for both medical research and public speaking, making complex public health messages easier to digest, not least by using analogies relating to his beloved football.
For his remarkable skills as a communicator, he received the Royal Society's David Attenborough Award and was called upon to give the Royal Institution's 2021 Christmas Lectures.
He says, in life, it's worth taking time to find out what floats your boat.
Finding the intersection between what you enjoy and what you're good at is, I think, the route to success, if you'll forgive the pun.