Manchester Launches NESTA FameLab!
Manchester turned up the volume for the first NESTA FameLab regional heat on the 4th April.
Presentations ranged from frogs to clouds, chaos theory to men's nipples... A great day of fun and laughter with a touch of nervousness! But fighting through the nerves paid off for three winners on the day.
The Manchester Regional winner was Lewis Dartnell an astrobiology researcher at University College London. Lewis is looking into the possibility of microbial life surviving on the surface of Mars. Lewis started out with a Biology degree at Oxford, before moving on to a PhD at UCL's interdisciplinary centre, CoMPLEX, and learning more about high-energy physics and computer programming than is probably healthy. Alongside his research Lewis writes freelance science articles for newspapers and magazines, and in 2007 published a popular science book introducing astrobiology, "Life in the Universe: A Beginner's Guide". Lewis cycles the streets of London and is a qualified sky-diver, but still finds the hunt for alien life about the most thrilling thing imaginable. His research and lecturing have taken him all over the world, and at a conference in Finland last year he found himself discussing the origins of life on Earth in an oppressively hot sauna with twenty naked sweating professors...
The two Manchester 'Wildcards' were:
Simon Choppin, a sports engineer researcher from Sheffield Hallam University. Simon started working in the field of sport and engineering in 2004 when he began his PhD at Sheffield University. His research project used high speed video cameras, elite tennis players and compressed air cannons, although not always at the same time. Since completing his PhD he's moved 5 minutes down the road to Sheffield Hallam University as a full-time researcher. His days are filled with puzzling questions such as ‘which football is fastest?', ‘How does a golfer swing a club', and ‘how effective are modern sports bras?'. Not all the work Simon does is so hands-on, and he can often be found hammering his keyboard trying to get a simulated brain to make all of his decisions for him. When not thinking about sport and engineering, Simon is often outside, playing sport. He is a keen mountain biker and revels in Sheffield's hills and dales. He is also a key team-member of Sheffield's first unicycle hockey team. At his first national tournament he scored 50% of the team's goals that day (1). They currently reside bottom in the league.
Public engagement is an important part of Simon's role at Sheffield Hallam University. He is keen to try and get people as excited about science and technology as he is; "Science is integral to almost every part of our modern life. Sport provides a great platform to showcase many scientific concepts, in a package which most people can relate to".
Andrew Russell, a weather and climate researcher at the University of Manchester. He has worked on thunderstorm development, Antarctic climate change and how computer models represent climate change. Originally from Dover in Kent, Andrew made his way to Manchester via Imperial College in London, the University of East Anglia in Norwich and the University of Birmingham. He loves talking about science and is involved in several engagement schemes with, for example, the Royal Meteorological Society and NOISEmakers.
Lewis wins a place in the weekend MasterClass and a place to compete at the Grand Finals at the Cheltenham Science Festival. Simon and Andrew go forward to be judged with the rest of the UK's wildcards to win a chance to go forward in the competition. Good luck to all of them!
The judges,Trevor Cox, Professor of Acoustics at the University of Salford, Dr Laura Grant, professional science communicator and BBC presenter, Dr Chris Lintott, Astrophysicist and BBC ‘The Sky at Night' presenter and Dr Lloyd Anderson, Director of Science for the British Council were very impressed with the quality of the contestants. A few comments from the panel were:
- "...make sure you put light and dark into your voice..."
- "Just determine what is important in your talk."
- "Keep it simple, just explain one thing."
- "Your passion really shined through. Great!"
Its not too late to enter the competition. There are four more regional finals to go and you could win one of them! You don't need any previous experience and all you have to do is show up on the day and give it your best!