I’m a Scientist: Get me out of here! is back from 11th–22nd November with 7 brand new zones, 35 scientists, and more than 70 schools taking part.
With more than eight applicants for every scientist’s place, there was fierce competition, but we’re ready to announce the scientists who will be competing for the final I’m a Scientist titles of 2013, and the schools who will be deciding their fates.
Our thanks to the Wellcome Trust for part funding the event, and to the STFC for funding the Extreme Clean, and Particle Physics Zones.
Ecology Zone
The Scientists:
| Thomas Doherty-Bone University of Leeds |
Aliens in our water – I look at how introduced crayfish, crabs, newts, plants, microbes affect rivers, lakes and ponds – should we worry? |
| Sofia Franko Newcastle University |
I try to understand the best way to make marine animals happy in our aquariums, so that they will eat, grow, survive and reproduce with each other and we can get loads of rocking new ones too! |
| Karen Bacon University of Leeds |
I am a palaeobotanist – I study fossil plants from millions of years ago to see what they can tell us about how plants respond to climate change |
| Greg Dash Aberystwyth University |
I study the social and economic impact of wind farms, specially on tourism. |
| Cassandra Raby University of Liverpool |
I follow baboons around to find out how, and why, they get ill – and will climate change make it worse? |
The Schools:
- Ralph Allen School, Bath
- Bishop David Brown School, Working
- Somervale School, Bath
- Thistley Hough Academy, Stoke-on-Trent
- Westfield Primary School, Surrey
- Kimberlay College, Bedfordshire
- Newham Sixth Form College, London
- Dixons City Academy, Bradford
- Kingfield School, Surrey
- Walker Technology College, Newcastle upon Tyne
Extreme Clean Zone
The Scientists:
| Sarah Tesh University of Bristol |
I am making a new material out of particles so small they basically have superpowers and then using that material to remove everything dangerous in water and save the world (well, help it along at least). |
| Nicci Potts The Open University |
I study the Moon rocks brought back to Earth from Astronauts during the Apollo missions in the 1970’s. I am measuring the chemical elements in these rocks to see what they can tell us about how our Earth and Moon formed. |
| Jessica Liley Oxford University |
I’m figuring out how to make environmentally-friendly washing powder, made from things like yeast and even deadly bacteria! |
| James King Oxford University |
I study dust storms around the world by travelling to remote arid regions to better understand how dust affects past, present, and future climate. |
| Ivan Campeotto Imperial College London |
I use protein crystallography to discover new antibiotics to fight bacteria. |
The Schools:
- Carterton Community College, Oxfordshire
- Fullhurst Community COllege, Leicester
- Farnham Primary School, Bradford
- Mount Tamar School, Devon
- Abingdon School, Oxfordshire
- Sirius Academy, Hull
- Pent Valley Technology College, Kent
- Mid Cheshire College, Cheshire
- Samuel Lister Academy, West Yorkshire
Genes Zone
The Scientists:
| Werner Muller University of Manchester |
Which genetic factors control chronic inflammation? |
| Vicky Forster Newcastle University |
Broken DNA: the cause of cancer and how best to treat it. |
| Nick Groves-Kirkby Oxford University |
I investigte human genetic diversity and how it’s related to health and disease |
| Marlene Lorgen University of Aberdeen |
I am finding out how baby Salmon know the time of year (without a calendar) by cloning bits of their DNA! |
| Carla Turner University of Sheffield |
I work on genetically modifying plants to see if we can make them more drought tolerant. |
The Schools:
- South Molton Community College, Devon
- Cliff Park High School, Gorleston
- Sir John Thursby, Burnley
- Brownhills West Primary School, West Midlands
- Shire Oak Academy, West Midlands
- MidKent College, Kent
- Cronton Sixth Form College, Cheshire
- Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Engineering College, Lancashire
- Garforth Academy, Leeds
- Manor Croft Academy, West Yorkshire
- Backwell School, Bristol
Particle Physics Zone
The Scientists:
| Zachary Williamson Oxford University |
I am a neutrino scientist, researching high energy physics at an atom smasher in Japan |
| Venus Keus University of Southampton |
Particles, the building blocks of everything around us, exciting stuff! |
| Tim Hollowood Swansea University |
I’m a particle theorist who thinks about how big the splat is when you fall into a black hole and quantum theory comes up against gravity. |
| Kristian Harder Rutherford Appleton Laboratory |
I use the biggest machine on the planet to look at the smallest pieces of the universe. Although most of the time I just sit there and try to figure out why my software doesn’t work. |
| Joel Goldstein University of Bristol |
I design, build and operate experimentsl at huge particle accelerators like the LHC, and I look for signs of completely new and unexpected laws of nature |
The Schools:
- Lampton School, Middlesex
- Hazelwick School, West Sussex
- Oasis Academy Shirley Park, Sussex
- Queensmead, Middlesex
- Rudolf Steiner School Kings Langley, Hertfordshire
- Speyside High School, Banffshire
- Lipson Cooperative Academy, Devon
- Broadoak, North Somerset
- Downside School, Bath
- The Bushey Academy, Watford
Stem Cells Zone
The Scientists:
| Tomasz Kostrzewski Imperial College London |
I study how stem cells in your bone marrow are able to become disease fighting white blood cells! |
| Matthew Tomlinson University of Leeds |
I work with stem cells from teeth, finding out how they work so they can be used to regrow teeth and broken bones. |
| David Christensen University of Southampton |
I’m trying to find out why stem cells eat so much sugar. |
| Aoife O’Shaughnessy-Kirwan Cambridge Stem Cell Institute |
I am trying to learn about how cells make decisions, for example how a single fertilised egg cell becomes a fully grown being like you or me! |
| Anzy Miller Cambridge Stem Cell Institute |
I’m trying to understand how the cells in an fertilised egg know they need to make different types of cells (e.g. brain and blood cells) so the egg goes on to form a baby. |
The Schools:
- Carshalton Boys’ Sports College, Surrey
- The Warwick School, Surrey
- Heanor Gate Science College, Derbyshire
- Dawlish Community, Devon
- West Thames College, Middlesex
- Treviglas Community College, Cornwall
- Desborough College, Berkshire
- Withington Girls, Manchester
- Bournmouth School for Girls, Bournmouth
- Lyndon School, Birmingham
Tellurium Zone
The Scientists:
| Saima Rehman Queen Mary University London |
I discovered tiny machines in bacteria, which they use as a weapon to attack humans, causing nasty diseases and deaths. |
| Julie Speakman Royal Derby Hospital |
I’m a nuclear medicine physicist, which means I make patients slightly radioactive then use special cameras to see what is wrong with them – we can often see where cancer has spread very early on and are involved with new treatments for cancer as well. |
| James Hickey University of Bristol |
I’m a volcano doctor – by taking a volcano’s pulse I try to find out if it’s going to vomit lava or explode with gas! |
| Daniel Patten University of Birmingham |
Liver disease is caused by white blood cells and I am looking at how the CLEVER-1 receptor on liver cells plays a part in recruiting white blood cells to the liver. |
| Antoine Buchard University of Bath |
In my lab, I can create plastic bags by mixing CO2 gas and your dinner leftovers: I’m the magic garbage chemist and I turn waste into useful materials. |
The Schools:
- Lucton School, Herefordshire
- Hillingdon Tuition Centre, London
- Mangotsfield School, Bristol
- The Mead Community Primary School, Trowbridge
- Smith’s Wood Sports College, Birmingham
- St Winning’s Primary School, North Ayrshire
- Sussex Downs College, Sussex
- Bristol Grammar School, Bristol
Iodine Zone
The Scientists:
| Susan Skelton Osaka University, Japan |
I use powerful light beams to look at, pick up and move around tiny objects that are too small to see or touch, including cells from our bodies, stinky bacteria, and even single atoms – the smallest pieces of matter in the universe. |
| Simon Langley-Evans University of Nottingham |
I am interested in how the diet that a woman eats during pregnancy changes the risk of disease in her baby, when they are adults. |
| Rachel Dakin University of Glasgow |
I turn viruses into postmen so they can deliver biological medicines to the correct destination in the body. |
| Louise Brown Northumbria University |
I am looking at a super protein that might stop breast cancer spreading! The super serpin MASPIN |
| Dilwar Hussain University of Sheffield |
I’m a nuclear scientist, and I look for ways to make nuclear reactors work for longer and produce more electricity |
The Schools:
- Walthamstow Academy, London
- Benjamin College, Buckinghamshire
- Bentley Wood High School, Middlesex
- The City Academy, Hackney
- Heolddu Comprehensive, Caerphilly
- Doonfoot Primary School, South Ayrshire
- King Solomon Academy, London
- Landscove Primary, Devon
- St Andrew’s Church of England Primary, Dorset
- Slough Grammar School, Slough
- DGSB, Kent
- Churston Ferrers Grammar School, Devon