Mark was voted the winner of the Molecule Zone in March 2022. Here he writes about spending his £500 prize money on presenting a chemistry talk at a local school and working with the Royal Society of Chemistry in creating and distributing his new book on the wonders of chemistry!

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

“

 

Giving these talks lets me share my motivations and excitement to students about the rewarding work you can do as a scientist!

”

Mark put his plan into action! He has recently given a number of talks at local schools’ chemistry events. He has also distributed his new book to student competition winners and to all schools involved. Evotec has started organising Young Scientists’ days where he repeated his talk and presented a book to the school. His plan is to approach other local schools and give them a book and offer to visit.

As he writes, scientists are ordinary people from a range of backgrounds with different hobbies who just happen to work in science for a living. Science is about questioning things and during the events, we received many excellent and thought-provoking questions from students. He shares his motivation from trying to find cures for diseases and explained that, as frustrating as science can be at times, it is an incredibly rewarding career.