RSCWinner

What Thomas Farrugia did with his prize money…

thomasfarrugiaThomas was voted the winner of the Polymers Zone in June 2015. Here he writes about how he used his £500 prize money to develop a calendar for schools featuring PhD students and the scientists whose discoveries their work is built on.


When you first sign up to I’m a Scientist you’re asked what you would do with the £500 if you win. I thought it would be pretty cool to produce a calendar explaining where the things we know today came from, who had made those key discoveries, and what their stories were – a bit of condensed history of science.  The calendars would then be distributed to schools in the UK for students to hang up in their classrooms and be inspired to stand on the shoulders of giants. Continue reading

Posted on August 7, 2019 by admin in News, RSCWinner, Winner Reports | Comments Off on What Thomas Farrugia did with his prize money…

What Cat Scott did with her prize money…

Cat was voted the winner of the Climate Change zone in March 2016. Here she writes about using her £500 prize money on the Terrific Scientific Trees Investigation.

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


As part of the BBC’s nationwide Terrific Scientific programme, we devised a project to get primary school children out of their classrooms and learning about the trees around them. I visited several primary schools to trial the lessons and then the BBC invited all primary schools in the UK to take part in May/June 2017. Continue reading

Posted on July 24, 2019 by admin in News, RSCWinner, Winner Reports | Comments Off on What Cat Scott did with her prize money…

What Steve Street did with his prize money

Steve was voted the winner of the Drug Discovery Zone in November 2016. Here he writes about using his £500 prize money to create a website that helps students understand the links between school subjects and future career opportunities. 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 plan for the £500 prize money was to develop a careers website for secondary school students, who are making decisions about what subjects to study. This might be KS3 subjects in year 9, GCSE subjects in year 10, A-level subjects in year 12, or undergraduate degree subjects in year 13. The website is based on real people, real careers and real research, and will be organised by school subject. Students will be able to log on and discover a wealth of potential career and … Continue reading

Posted on February 6, 2019 by admin in RSCWinner, Winner Reports | Comments Off on What Steve Street did with his prize money

What Jonny Hunter and Laura Finney did with their prize money…

Jonny was voted the winner of Antibiotics Zone in June 2016. Here he reports back on how he used his £500 prize money to support his outreach activities with fellow winner Laura from Catalysis Zone. If you’d like the chance to win funding to develop your science outreach work, apply for I’m a Scientist at imascientist.org.uk/scientist-apply I won my I’m a Scientist zone at the same time as another scientist from my centre (Laura Finney) and we decided to pool our money. After a number of discussions, we decided to stay close to home with our main activity. So, we ran a stall at “Science in the Park 2017” based at Wollaton Hall in Nottingham. This was a free public event that brought together scientists from many different fields so they could engage with the general public and tell them why our research is so fantastic. As our common research topic covers photochemistry … Continue reading

Posted on July 18, 2018 by in RSCWinner, Winner Reports | Comments Off on What Jonny Hunter and Laura Finney did with their prize money…

What Megan Seymour did with her prize money…

Megan was voted the winner of the Energy Zone in November 2016. Here she reports back on how she used her £500 prize for her own science outreach project 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 As a final year chemistry PhD student at the University of Edinburgh I have taken full advantage of the opportunities I’ve had to engage school children and the wider public with research taking place at the University, and science in general. Having lead school science workshops, organised science festival drop-ins, hosted student lab visits and volunteered at public open days I was keen to do something a little different with my prize money. My idea came from doing a walking tour of the city, which opened my eyes to the fascinating history of science here … Continue reading

Posted on November 22, 2017 by in RSCWinner, Winner Reports | Comments Off on What Megan Seymour did with her prize money…

What Chris Blanford did with his prize money…

Chris was voted the winner of the Biochemistry Zone in March 2016.  Here he reports back on using his £500 prize money to fund science activity equipment  for local schools. If you’d like the chance to win funding to develop your science outreach work, apply for I’m a Scientist at imascientist.org.uk/scientist-apply I leveraged the prize funds towards a set of 50 ‘chocolate impact testers’. These testers are based on a rig developed at the University of Sheffield to help engage students using chocolate to investigate the physical property toughness. The testers were part of the ‘Wonder Boxes’ put together by our local science museum, the Museum of Science and Industry. The rest of the sponsorship came from the the Worshipful Company of Armourers and Brasiers, the University of Manchester’s School of Materials’ OFFA allocation, and Greater Manchester Higher funds. The funds from I’m a Scientist covered about 5 or 6 of the kits. … Continue reading

Posted on August 9, 2017 by in RSCWinner, Winner Reports | Comments Off on What Chris Blanford did with his prize money…

What Jesus Calvo-Castro did with his prize money

Jesus took part in Spectroscopy Zone in November 2015 and was voted the winner. Below he tells us what he’s been doing with his £500 prize money. If you’re a scientist who’d like the funding to develop your own outreach activities apply for I’m a Scientist at imascientist.org.uk/scientist-apply One of the toughest questions I was asked when participating in I’m a Scientist (Spectroscopy Zone) back in November 2015 was what would I do with the prize money if resulted winner of the competition. After giving it a bit of thought and motivated by the questions in the live chats I came up with the idea of making a video where students could see how is a day in one of the spectroscopy labs where I work, from making up samples to using different instruments. I thought that, whilst more advanced students would probably find entertaining/interesting a more in-depth explanation of what … Continue reading

Posted on January 18, 2017 by in RSCWinner, Winner Reports | Comments Off on What Jesus Calvo-Castro did with his prize money

What Elizabeth Cooper did with her prize money…

Elizabeth is a Research and Development Chemist at Shepherd Widnes Ltd and won the Materials Zone in March 2015. Here she tells us what she was able to do with her £500 prize money… I was fortunate enough to win I’m a Scientist in March 2015 in the Materials zone as I faced stiff competition from the other scientists, Rob, Martin, James and Martin! As I won I had the opportunity to spend the prize money on my own activity to engage people with science. My main passion within science is chemistry. I have always loved chemistry since I was a child and because of this I decided to run a science club involving chemistry laboratory experiments. I contacted the Catalyst Science Discovery Centre in Widnes and was put in touch with a lovely woman called Clare Hampson who is the Education Manager there. The Catalyst Centre run free science clubs to … Continue reading

Posted on July 20, 2016 by in RSCWinner, Winner Reports | Comments Off on What Elizabeth Cooper did with her prize money…

What Jo Sadler did with her prize money…

Jo was voted the winner of the Green Chemistry Zone in March 2015.  We asked her to tell us what she’s been up to over the last year with her £500 and here is what she said… Answering questions from the students in I’m a Scientist was not only great fun – but it also got me to think about what I do in a different light. Despite stiff competition from the other scientists, I was delighted to find out I’d survived until the end and now had the opportunity to do something new with the prize money. So here’s what I did… I’m passionate about sharing my enthusiasm for science with others and especially keen to pass this on to the younger generations. I wanted to start something that would reach as many young people as possible and get them to think about science in a new light. With this in mind, … Continue reading

Posted on March 30, 2016 by in RSCWinner, Winner Reports | Comments Off on What Jo Sadler did with her prize money…

What Jess Wade did with her prize money…

Jess was voted the winner of Colour Zone in June 2015. Here she tells us how she immediately got to work using the prize money for her own outreach event: a day bringing girls into her department at Imperial College London… Last year, I got involved with Greenlight for girls’ mission to inspire girls of all ages and backgrounds to pursue STEM subjects after helping out with their events in Brussels. We then started dreaming about their first UK adventure, and with help from the I’m a Scientist prize money, pretty quickly that became a reality. On Saturday 26th September, Imperial’s Department of Physics went ‘swipe-free’ 09:00 – 10:00, and welcomed 200 girls into the Blackett Laboratory for the first g4g London. This was an epic organisational triumph: a cross-campus multi-department effort to encourage and inspire 12 – 16 year old girls to study science, technology, engineering and maths. The day itself came after a week … Continue reading

Posted on February 17, 2016 by in RSCWinner, Winner Reports | Comments Off on What Jess Wade did with her prize money…

What Anaïs Pujol did with the prize money….

Anaïs came second in the Molecules Zone of March 2015 and was awarded the £500 after Peter Maskell found alternative funding for his project. Anaïs got straight to work making the most of this opportunity and here she fills us in on what she was able to do with the money…. I really enjoyed I’m a Scientist and, although I came second, I was fortunate to be kindly awarded the prize money by the winner, Peter. I wanted to use the money to set up an outreach activity for to inspire young children to look around them and think about science. Initially I contacted people in charge of outreach activities at Antikor, where I work, but unfortunately they didn’t have an event planned in the near future.  As people couldn’t come to me I decided to look for a place where I could go to them! One day I received an email from Science … Continue reading

Posted on January 6, 2016 by in RSCWinner, Winner Reports | Comments Off on What Anaïs Pujol did with the prize money….