Science Challenge winners announced
Scientists gather at The Gore Hotel to receive awards
The Royal College of Science Union (RCSU) held a formal dinner for alumni and the Science Challenge 2011 winners on Thursday 24 November. The Science Challenge competition is an annual, national scientific essay writing competition aiming to encourage scientific debate, reasoning and the communication of science in a public-friendly context.
Imperial students may enter as well as students from secondary schools and colleges, with the topics separated into Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics. The overall winner of the Science Challenge 2011 was Andrew Purcell, who received £2000 for his submission to the Physics question, “Why should the average person care whether we discover the Higgs boson?” with Sarah Byrne receiving the runner up prize of £1000 for her essay.
The individual subject prize winners include Felix’s very own Travel Editor Christopher Richardson for the Biology prize, Science Editors Alexander Karapetian and Kelly Oakes for the Mathematics and Physics prizes respectively and Erica Thompson for the Chemistry prize, each receiving £250 for their efforts. The overall winner for the external school entries was James Bezer, who received £500, with runners up Hiba Chaudhry and Joseph Herbert receiving £250 each.
John Sanderson, President of the Royal College of Science Association (RCSA) was present at the dinner along with Professor Maggie Dallman. Paul Beaumont, Vice President (Operations) of the RCSU and Science Challenge Chair announced the next challenge’s launch date to be 17 January 2012, commenting he “encourages people to enter as it’s going to be bigger than ever before”, with judges including the BBC’s Science Correspondent, The Times’ Science Editor and Lord Robert Winston.
Luke Kanczes, RCSU President, said “it was fantastic to see that even after graduation Imperial scientists still have such a strong connection with not only Imperial but the RCSU”, adding “it was great to finally announce the winners and I’m looking forward to next year’s Science Challenge!”
