Matt was voted the winner of the Actinium Zone in June 2017. Here he writes about how he used his £500 prize money to produce a sci-art exhibition.

If you’d like the chance to win funding for your own public engagement work, apply for the next I’m a Scientist, Get me out of here: imascientist.org.uk/scientist-apply

My favourite thing about science is the creativity behind it. I try to explore this creativity in all of the public engagement and outreach work I do when talking about science. I used the £500 to put on an exhibition of science art in Bristol for 2 weeks in May 2018, Creative Reactions Bristol. We had 35 scientists and 35 artists work together to produce pieces of art that explored the scientists’ research. We had over 2,000 people explore the exhibition and talk to scientists and artists involved.

I am continuing with the science art exhibition and in 2019 we have 50 artists and 50 scientists taking part with an exhibition across two galleries for 30 days. We’ve got a load of school and adult workshops planned to get people involved in science in hands-on and creative ways, instead of just teaching people about science we are getting them to explore and be creative.

Without the I’m a Scientist funding I would not have been able to deliver as successful an exhibition in 2018 as we did. This success has enabled us to continue with the project, growing it and making it more engaging for all ages.

As well as organising the 2019 science art exhibition, I’m also developing a wheel of fortune that explores the concepts of risk so we can finally understand what it actually means when the media tells us that coffee/chocolate/milk/bacon/[insert food here] is killing us!