Edinburgh Rounds Off NESTA FameLab 2009
Mosquitoes singing love songs? That is what Georgina Humphries explained to the four Edinburgh judges that led her to win the NESTA Edinburgh Regional heat. Other presentations of the day explained where true north is and why does it change, environmentally safe energy sources, the language of computers and the difference between white head and blackhead pimples with the aid of a cake, whipped cream and a maltese...
The judges were impressed by the standard of the presentations and the clarity in which contestants explained highly complex subjects. Head judge Jan Barfoot, Head of Researchers in Residence Edinburgh, was assisted by Sergio Della Sala, Professor of Neuropsychology from the University of Edinburgh, Mark Miodownik , head of the Materials Research Group at King's College London, and Rachel Bell Executive Producer at IWC Media were most impressed with the two highly constructed and delivered presentations made by the winner, Georgina and selected three Edinburgh Wildcards, Alex Gray, David Alonso and Alex Twyford.
Georgina Sarah Humphreys
Born in London but moving to south Shropshire as a teenager, Georgina now lives in Glasgow. She completed a BSc and MSc by research at Edinburgh University and stayed on in Edinburgh for two years, working for the NHS. Keen to return to scientific research she then enrolled at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to complete an MSc in infectious diseases, where she was offered a research assistant post working on malaria drug resistance. This led to her current position at the University of Glasgow, where she is nearing the end of her PhD on malaria in mosquitoes. She is a keen science communicator, demonstrated by her work in Glasgow schools, and winning a national science communication competition at the Liverpool Science Festival in 2008. She is a committed scientist but loves her time away from the lab too, regularly enjoying going to the theatre and eating out, in between dance classes and tending to her allotment with her fiancé.
Alex Gray
Alex completed his Computer Networking HNC at Jewel & Esk College and his HND at Stevenson College in Edinburgh. He is about to start his final year at Edinburgh Napier University and hopes to take on a Masters in Science Media Production in 2010. Network Computing is the art and science of making our modern tools, such as computers, talk to each other, so that we can communicate and work together while physically disparate. The pursuit has inspired Alex to think about the ways in which modern people communicate with one another, and how this may be rapidly evolving. In his spare time Alex is an amateur magician and hypnotist, with a strong interest in psychology, and a stronger interest in brightly coloured sweaters.
David Alonso
David earnt his degree from the University of Cordoba in Southern Spain, and started his PhD in Complex Systems at Universidad de Sevilla. The opportunity came up to continue his PhD, focussing in Chaotic Dynamics, at the University of the West of Scotland. David is about to complete his thesis in what he describes as "A fun topic: it's a toy that Dr Malkus from M.I.T. built in 1972. A chaotic waterwheel. Simple but elusive in its behaviour".
David loves communicating science to anyone who might be interested. But not necessarily through the media. He describes himself as: "the kind who would spend hours explaining the experiments of the science museum to the people passing by". David also loves teaching, and most of all, Chaos Theory and all the promising things that this field has to show us in the next few decades.