It’s time to announce the scientists and schools taking part in the Los Angeles I’m a Scientist event from 25th June – 6th July.
UK schools taking part in this event
Nearly 70 schools will be taking part with schools from Newcastle to Torquay. We’re hoping that, as in previous events, energy levels will be high and classes at these schools will have a great experience. One teacher in March 2012 said the best part of the event was “Seeing the excitement of the students as they received feedback to their questions”.
Scientists
As ever competition for scientists was tough, and choosing the final scientists to take part was hard. We had to turn down lots of scientists doing fascinating research. Scientists have thoroughly enjoyed previous events. One scientist who took part in March 2012 says “I hugely enjoyed it. There are clearly some smart kids out there”.
Molybdenum Zone
Scientists
| SarahJayne Boulton | Newcastle University | I’m a biological diagnostician, I use nanosensors and gold electrodes to work out how DNA and our cells’ batteries, the ‘mitochondria’, are affected by solar radiation and the environment we live in. |
| Paige Brown | Louisiana State University | As a scientist I study the nano-world (the world of the very, VERY small); as a journalist I make the nano-world I study in the lab come to life on paper! |
| Gemma Staite | New Cross Hospital | I spend my days growing germs from wee and poo to find out what is making a person ill – then hopefully find out what drugs will kill the nasty germs and make the patient feel better |
| Ashley Cadby | The University of Sheffield | I build special microscopes to look at very small thing. |
| Andrew Thomas | The University of Manchester | We are trying to understand how we can make medical implants, like hip or dental implants behave in a particular way in the body, for example to heal quickly and bond strongly to bone, by changing the surface of a material. |
Schools
Nisai Virtual Academy, Stockton-on-Tees
Pate’s Grammar School, Cheltenham
Unity College, Blackpool
Budmouth College, Weymouth
The King’s School, Ottery St Mary
Healing School, Grimsby
Park-High School, Colne
Great Marlow School, Marlow
Tile Hill Wood School and Language College, Coventry
Niobium Zone
Scientists
| Michael Cook | Imperial College | London I’m building an artificial intelligence called ANGELINA, and teaching it to design whole video games all on its own! |
| Emma Trantham | University of Bristol | I work with bacteria that can give you really nasty food poisoning (vomiting… diarrhoea… the lot) trying to figure out why so many chickens carry them and how we can get rid of them. |
| Cees Van der Land | University of Edinburgh | As a geologist I look at old coral reefs, growing during the times of dinosaurs and investigate the (now extinct) sea creatures living at that time and how the reef became a rock. |
| Blanka Sengerova | University of Oxford | I study proteins (which are cellular machinery) that are involved in the repair of DNA (the instructions for making cellular machinery), trying to work out how DNA is repaired, which could in future help design anti-cancer drugs. |
| Anil de Sequeira | Bath Spa University | My main research involves the development of labels that change colour in response to the combined effect of time and temperature to monitor the quality shel life of frozen and chilled products. |
Schools
Childwall school, Liverpool
Abbotsmede Primary School, Peterborough
St Katherines, Pill
Hayesfield Girls’ School, Bath
Gladesmore Community School, London
Worden Sports College, Preston
City of Portsmouth Girls’ School, Portsmouth
Walton High, Milton Keynes
St Anselm’s Catholic School, Canterbury
Yttrium Zone
Scientists
| Nathan Langford | Royal Holloway, University of London | II used to play with lasers, but now I play with superconductors (so cold, they’re even colder than space!) – all trying to build a quantum computer, which could simulate DNA, show photosynthesis is really quantum-powered, and make unbreakable cryptocodes. |
| Harriet Groom | MRC National Institute for Medical Research | I try to understand the ongoing battle between viruses and their hosts – how we protect ourselves and how viruses sneak through! |
| Diva Amon | Natural History Museum | London I’m researching strange animals that come to feed on dead trees and the bodies of whales that sink down to the deep-sea floor. |
| Angela Lamb | NERC Isotope Geosciences Laboratory | British Geological Survey I am a geochemist examining archaeological bones, teeth and hair to find out what ancient humans used to eat. |
| Allan Pang | Queen Mary University of London | Alcoholic bacteria: I study “little factories” found in bacterial cells that makes use of alcohol as their food. |
Schools
Stockley Academy, Uxbridge
Longdendale Community Language College, Hyde
Convent of Jesus & Mary Language College, Harlesden
Eaton Bank School, Congleton
Foxfield Primary School, London
Loughborough Grammar School, Loughborough
Caroline Chisholm School, Northampton
North Chadderton School, Oldham
Shenley Brook End, Milton Keynes
Great Cornard Upper School, Sudbury
Zirconium Zone
Scientists
| Rebecca Lacey | University College London | I research how parents affect the health of their children, particularly if they divorce. |
| Philip Glasson | Home Office Science | Our organisation is made up of scientists and engineers who develop technological solutions to fight crime. |
| John Welford | Manchester University | I’m an Engineer looking at small electric motors that move parts around in the engines of large vehicles like lorries, buses and trains. Before this I worked on missiles for the government. |
| Eleanor Turpin | University of Nottingham | Supercomputers vs superbugs! I run computer simulations to understand how new antibiotics can treat infections that are very hard to cure. |
| Carol White | University of Leeds | I’m a bio-geo-chemi-oceanographer (what a mouthful!) studying the strange creatures living on the sea floor – figuring out what they like to eat, what kind of environments they live in and how they influence how carbon is stored in ocean sediments! |
Schools
St Mary Redcliffe and Temple School, Bristol
Nisai Virtual Academy, Stockton-on-Tees
Hurstmere school, Sidcup
Landscove Primary, Newton Abbot
Woodkirk Academy, Wakefield
Sacred Heart High School, London
Gateacre School, Liverpool
Thanet College, Broadstairs
Walton High, Milton Keynes
Ernulf Academy, St Neots
Earth Zone
Sponsored by the Institute of Physics
Scientists
| Nuala Carson | University of Liverpool | and the National Oceanography Centre I try and understand how sea ice in the polar regions moves, so that in future I can help to predict how much (or how little) sea ice will be in both the Arctic and Antarctic regions which is important for all the people and animals who work or live there. |
| James Verdon | University of Bristol | I study earthquakes and volcanoes, why do they happen, and can we predict when they’ll occur? |
| James Pope | University of Edinburgh | I live in the past, using a super-computer to model the climate from when the world was warmer, 3 million years ago! |
| Gemma Purser | British Geological Survey | Hubble, bubble, carbon dioxide is the trouble, reactions of rocks with fizzy water underground may help save the Earth before its temperature doubles. |
| Davie Galloway | The British Geological Survey | I’m a seismologist who deals with deadly and damaging earthquakes both here in the UK and worldwide. |
Schools
Stockley Academy, Uxbridge
Churston Ferrers Grammar School, Brixham
St Anne’s Catholic School, Southampton
St Thomas More School, Crewe
Bramdean School, Exeter
The Phoenix Centre, Wigan
Chichester High School For Girls, Chichester
Kingsbury High School, Kingsbury
Backwell School, Backwell
Admiral Lord Nelson School, Portsmouth
St Thomas More School, Crewe
Laser Zone
Sponsored by the Institute of Physics
Scientists
| Tom Lister | Salisbury | Clinical Scientist developing skin laser treatments and services from an NHS hospital |
| Tim Stephens | Oxford Lasers | I use lots of different lasers to take pictures of fast-moving things so that special software can measure how fast they are moving, or what size and shape they are. |
| Tianfu Yao | Optoelectronics Research Centre University of Southampton, Southampton. | Research on high power fibre lasers with high efficiency and ultralow heat generation. |
| Phillipa Bird | University of Bristol | I use very tiny “Laser Tweezers” to follow drug-loaded nanoparticles into cancer cells, which should help minimise side effects and treat cancer with more success. |
| Michael Bloom | Imperial College London | I use some of the most powerful lasers in the world to accelerate things to fly at the speed of light over distances as small as your school ruler, with the aim, among other things, to try and cure cancer. |
Schools
Roundwood Park School, Harperden
Somervale School, Midsomer Norton
Kingsmead Community School, Wiveliscombe
The Rochester Grammar, Rochester
Carlton Bolling College, Bradford
Hameldon Community College, Burnley
John Hanson Community School, Andover
Caroline Chisholm School, Wooton
The London Nautical School, London
Organs Zone
Scientists
| Vee Mitchell | Convergence Pharmaceuticals | I’m a neuroscientist which means I know lots about the brain and how it works. My job is to find new drugs to make the pain go away. |
| Salli Baxendale | Institute of Neurology, UCL | How to cut out the bad bits and leave the good bits in brain surgery |
| Nisha Rana | Institute of Lung Health, Glenfield Hospital (University Hospitals of Leicester) | The secrets of the DRUG WORLD! I find markers in all sorts of yucky stuff like sputum to diagnose illness, do crazy experiments including hole punching a bit of muscle out of out someones leg and drown a pair of lungs! |
| Katie McDonald | London | I’m a pathologist, performing autopsies to work out why people died, and diagnosing cancers and other diseases in the lab, so that patients get the right treatments! |
| Bob Bonwick | Department of Histopathology, Cheltenham General Hospital | I work with samples from everywhere in the body, living and dead. My work focuses on the minute details and what isn’t right in the samples looking down the microscope. I get to use all the fun parts of Science to determine what’s wrong. |
Schools
St Gregory’s Catholic College, Bath
Parliament Hill School, London
Kingsbury High School, Kingsbury
The Toynbee School, Eastleigh
Beechfield Secure Unit, Copthorne
Honywood Community Science School, Coggeshall
Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Engineering College, Skelmersdale
Blackfen School for Girls, Blackfen
Pathology Zone
Sponsored by The Royal College of Pathologists
Scientists
| Samantha Weaver | NHS | A Biomedical Scientist does tests on samples from people and animals (blood, urine, poo, saliva, CSF, body parts!) to tell doctors/vets what is wrong with their patient and to help check the treatment is working. |
| Sam Chilka | Leeds teaching Hospitals NHS Trust | I’m like a “disease detective” – I use a microscope to hunt down cancer cells in patients’ tissue samples and find out what type of cancer it might be – and this helps patients get the right treatment for their illness. |
| Michael East | Barts Health NHS Trust, London | I work out how people died. |
| Jonathan Kay | Oxford University Hospitals | I work in Laboratory Medicine: it’s crucial to modern medicine, but it’s only a bit like CSI |
| Angharad Davies | Swansea University and Public Health Wales Microbiology Swansea | In our hospital lab we diagnose infections in patients, by growing bugs ranging from friendly bacteria to deadly superbugs which cause life-threatening illness. |
Schools
Shire Oak Academy, Walsall
Westfield Community Technology College, Watford
Millfield SPAC, Thornton-Cleveleys
Marshalls Park School, Romford
City of Portsmouth Girls’ School, Portsmouth
Addey & Stanhope, New Cross
Philomena’s School, Carshalton