FameLab International 2011 finalists discuss their top tips for budding science communicators with the Nature Network

Five years after it first left the UK, the FameLab competition is returning once again to Cheltenham with 14 national winners ready to battle it out in front of millions of viewers in their home countries. The young scientists from across three continents will compete to see who is the most exciting, accessible and charismatic science communicator in the world, in a format run in partnership with the British Council.

As we start the new FameLab UK competition we asked the 2009 NESTA FameLab competition winners what they’ve been up to...

UK Winner Tom Whyntie and fellow finalists Matt Baker (famous for being the first person ever to give a 3 minute poem as his NESTA FameLab Final performance) and Andrew Pontzen have been developing and presenting ‘climbing the tree of physics at science festivals – see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STPZBL8N-dE

As part of a Nature Network blog mini series focusing on science festivals, Sharon Bishop, the Executive Director of The Times Cheltenham Science Festival, and Kathy Sykes, Festival Director and Professor of Sciences and Society at Bristol University and talk about the festival... and about FameLab!

Read more at http://blogs.nature.com/u6e5b2ce1/2011/06/01/cheltenham-science-festival

INTERNATIONAL FAMELAB FINAL 2011, Saturday June 11

Doing more for international relations than any UN conference, this year’s FameLab competition took place in 17 countries across Europe, Asia and Africa. Hot-footing it to Cheltenham, the winners fight it out in the 2011 final of finals hosted, by the 2009 Audience Vote winner Matt Parker.

THE MATRIX: REALITY OR FICTION?, Tuesday 7 June

Matt Parker is best described as a Stand-Up Mathematician who does everything in his power to make more people excited about mathematics. After studying Mathematics and Physics in Australia Matt now works as a maths teacher in a London secondary school. Around this he takes every opportunity to give talks to friends, family and strangers about mathematics and why he is so passionate about it. Matt was voted winner of the Audience Award at the NESTA FameLab 2009 Final and performed as one of the ‘Boffins' in the comedy science game show ‘Not Rocket Science' at the Cheltenham Science Festival.

Shini Somarathne completed a BEng (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering in 1999. She then immediately continued to study at Brunel University to complete an Engineering Doctorate (EngD) in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) by December 2004.

Chris Rowlands is currently studying Chemistry at Imperial College London. Although he has no formal training in science communication, he has experience as a part-time magician, juggler and amateur cellist. He is also the author of a series of articles about juggling entitled "Ten Things I Can Do That You Can't" for Imperial's student newspaper. Chris is a member of the Goldman Sachs Global Leaders (Class of 2003) and was the recipient of an Ernest Oppenheimer Studentship to study for a PhD at Cambridge.

Rebecca (Bex) Lloyd-Evans recently graduated with a first in Human Sciences from UCL. In her final year she specialised in the neurobiology of mental illness and creativity and her findings have been published in "Recent Advances in Creativity". Since graduating she has worked on a BBC science documentary, a sci-art film funded by the Wellcome Trust and for a social and political film set in the Middle East.

Luke Jerram is an inventor, artist and science communicator. He designs and builds science exhibits whilst creating multimedia installation artworks which he tours internationally. In 2002, he was awarded a fellowship from NESTA (National Endowment of Science, Technology and the Arts) to explore the properties of space and perception. In 2000 Luke taught in war torn Mostar, Bosnia and he continues to teach and lecture in the UK and abroad.