Adrian Bull, Professor of Nuclear Energy and Society at the University of Manchester, discusses a defining career moment when family circumstances meant he had to focus on the core of his job, managing a large team at BNFL, and exclude all the peripheral activities of engaging with other people inside and outside the business. But Adrian discovered that he was motivated more by engaging others than by the core of his job. So, he focused on this and developed a distinguished career in communications and policy for nuclear energy. Adrian was awarded an MBE in 2018 in recognition of his work on the development of public understanding in nuclear research.