Who’s taking part in June 2014

schools in free online science engagement outreach in June

Schools taking part in June are from all around the UK

I’m a Scientist, Get me out of here! is back from Monday 16th to Friday 27th June. We’re running 12 themed zones and five general zones, including 2 zones just for Primary School students.

That’s 85 scientists talking with students from nearly 120 different schools from all around the UK, from Inverness all the way down to St Austell in Cornwall.

Let’s take a look at the schools and scientists taking part this June!

For the latest updates on the event, follow @imascientist on Twitter. Our hashtag for 2014 is #IAS2014.


Agriculture Zone

The Scientists:

Ricardo Ramirez
The Genome Analysis Centre
I help farmers to choose wheat that survives diseases and produce better bread.
Liam Harvey
PhD Student at Warwick Crop Centre
Crops and Robbers- Fungi Vs. Insects
Kimberley Lowe
Marine Scotland
I visit fish farms to look for any signs of diseases that might spread to other farms – I get to cut up sick fish so that the labs can test for viruses and bacteria.
Jennifer Stephens
Lecturer at The James Hutton Institute
I’m a plant biotechnologist, I switch genes off and on to see what happens to the plants.
James Taylor
Lecturer at Newcastle University
I work with tractors that steer themselves and are equipped with space-age sensors to tell how happy and healthy plants are – we use this info to feed the plants correctly to make sure we produce as much food as possible.

The Schools

  • Lathallan School, Montrose
  • Mary Webb School, Shrewsbury
  • The Royal School Dungannon, Tyrone
  • Dover Grammar School for Boys, Dover
  • Doha Collage, Quatar

Animal Behaviour Zone

The Scientists:

Shaylon Stolk
RPS Group
Use bird behaviour to reduce wildlife risks from wind farms.
Natalie Pilakouta
PhD Student at University of Edinburgh
I study animal sex, specifically asking which types of males females typically choose to mate with and why they might sometimes change their minds and mate with someone else instead.
James Bell
PhD Student at University of Leeds
What do animals in the deep sea eat and how do they choose?
Catherine Offord
PhD Student at Princeton University
I study how a colony of ants can organize itself into a huge swarm, identifying individual ants by gluing tiny barcodes onto their backs.
Anthony Caravaggi
PhD Student at Queen’s University Belfast
I’m working on hares, big animals which look a lot like rabbits, to see what happens when two different kinds of hares meet in the same place.

The Schools:

  • Lucton School, Herefordshire
  • Oakbank School, Reading
  • Brislington Enterprise College, Bristol
  • Queens’ School, Bushey
  • Sirius Academy, Hull
  • Smith’s Wood Sports College, Birmingham
  • St Michaels RC Primary School, Newcastle upon Tyne
  • Westbridge Pupil Referral Unit, Ipswich
  • Bath Community Academy, Bath

Astronomy Zone

The Astronomy Zone is funded by the STFC.

The Scientists:

Sarah Casewell
Postdoc at University of Leicester
I study white dwarfs which are dead stars, and brown dwarfs which are failed stars that bridge the gap between stars and planets.
Sam Connolly
PhD Student at University of Southampton
I look at massive Black Holes which are at the centres of galaxies, as they suck up huge amounts of hot gas producing the energy of a billion suns!
Roberto Trotta
Lecturer at Imperial College London
I use the largest telescopes on Earth and the most powerful satellites in the sky to look for invisible bits of matter that are all around us — finding them might tell us the destiny of the entire Universe!
Nate Bastian
Professor at Liverpool John Moores University
I am an astronomer, using giant telescopes in space and on the ground to study the fireworks (the formation of millions of stars) that happen when galaxies collide.
Natasha Stephen
PhD Student at Natural History Museum London & Imperial College London
I study the only rocks we have from Mars (meteorites) and try and link them up to spacecraft data!

The Schools:

  • Broadoak School, Weston-Super-Mare
  • Elton High School, Bury
  • Haven High, Boston
  • Little Lever School, Bolton
  • Sandal Endowed, Wakefield
  • St Edward’s Prep School, Reading
  • Teddington School, Middlesex
  • The Bushey Academy, Watford
  • The Ockendon Academy, Thurrock
  • Whitburn CE Academy, Sunderland
  • Withington Girls, Manchester

Bioinformatics Zone

The Bioinformatics Zone is part funded by The Genome Analysis Centre, as part of I’m a Scientist’s 2014 Big Data Season.

The Scientists:

Zena Hira
PhD Student at Imperial College London
I am a computer scientist applying computing techniques on medical data in order to find better ways to cure diseases!
Vicky Schneider
Professor at The Genome Analysis Centre
I train scientists in the latest technologies and making their research sharable, with a keen interest in how people learn…
Sergey Lamzin
PhD Student at The Genome Analysis Centre
Living organisms and computers have one thing in common: they are both programmed. Programming a PC is easy. I try to program living things.
Ian Simpson
Lecturer at University of Edinburgh
I use computers to study how genes work in the brain; 86 billion cells, 100s of trillions of connections and 24 thousand genes, it’s a big computer.
Claire Shooter
PhD Student at King’s College London
I’m a geneticist! I’m using new DNA sequencing technology to identify complicated genetic mutations that cause diseases. I like to think of myself as a genetic Sherlock Holmes, but I’m probably alone in that…

The Schools:

  • Gresham’s School, Holt
  • Lampton School, Hounslow
  • Walthamstow Academy, London
  • Westcliff High for Boys, Leigh on Sea
  • Bay House School, Gosport

Diamond Zone

The Diamond Zone is funded by the STFC.

The Scientists:

Simon Redfern
Professor at University of Cambridge
The story of how Earth was formed and why we can live on it is hidden within rocks and minerals: I use X-rays and neutrons to study minerals from deep space to deep Earth, from sea shells to the Earth’s core, to understand what makes a habitable planet.
Phillip Manning
University of Manchester
I dig-up very dead things and try and unpick their biology, morphology and mode of preservation.
Lynne Thomas
Postdoc at University of Bath
I use big expensive pieces of kit at places like Diamond Light Source to torture crystals – I heat and cool them, squeeze, shine high powered lasers at them, all whilst shining X-rays on them – this is to help us make things that are useful as sensors
Jenny Eyley
PhD at University of Nottingham
I work with materials called Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs), which are sort of molecular sponges (they’ve got lots of holes in them that can store different types of gases) – in the future they might be used to help store fuel for hydrogen powered cars.
Daren Fearon
Postdoc at University of Southampton
I study ways to develop new drugs for bad bugs. I am fighting biological weapons and superbugs.

The Schools:

  • Queen Elizabeths Grammar School, Faversham
  • South Molton Community College, South Molton
  • St Anne’s Catholic School, Southampton
  • St Bartholomew’s School, Newbury
  • The Mary Erskine School, Edinburgh
  • The Rochester Grammar, Rochester
  • King Henry VIII School, Coventry

Drug Development Zone

The Scientists:

Sandra Chiwanza
Quintiles Ltd
I make sure new medicines in various phases of clinical trials are safe and can work properly for a variety of diseases and medical conditions
Nimesh Mistry
Lecturer at University of Leeds
I make and design new medicines 
Daryl Jones
Postdoc at Mayo Clinic, Florida
I have developed new medicines using camels and sharks to treat people with incurable brain diseases like Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease and Mad Cow Disease!
Anita Thomas
Postdoc at University of Bristol
Can using nanoparticles help us design better ways of target-delivering drugs to treat atherosclerosis and heart disease?
Amy Monaghan
PhD Student at University of Aberdeen
I make and use “light-up” cells to discover new drugs for prostate cancer, and find out how they work.

The Schools:

  • Churston Ferrers Grammar School, Brixham
  • Fitzharys School, Oxfordshire
  • Stanborough School, Welwyn Garden City

Extreme Energy Zone

The Extreme Energy Zone is funded by the STFC.

The Scientists:

Laurence Perreault
PhD Student at University of Cambridge
I am interested in early Universe cosmology, in particular in how the study of the earliest moments of the Universe can give us a better insight about fundamental physics.
Greig Cowan
Postdoc at University of Edinburgh
I smash together tiny particles at very high energy and look at what comes out of the explosion!
Dave Jones
Postdoc at University of Atacama, Chile
I use telescopes all over the world to try to understand what the Sun will look like when it finally runs out of fuel and dies!
Chris Allton
Professor at Swansea University
I study matter just after the Big Bang – at temperatures of trillions of Celsius – so hot that even protons and neutrons break apart.
Aimee Hopper
PhD Student at Huddersfield University
I’m an accelerator physicist, and I look at how very special small devices called metamaterials) can be used to make a high energy particle accelerator, like CERN, fit on a table top!

The Schools:

  • Caroline Chisholm School, Northampton
  • Chelsea Academy, London
  • Churston Ferrers Grammar School, Brixham
  • Little Lever School, Bolton
  • Northampton Academy, Northampton
  • Teddington School, Middlesex
  • The Mary Erskine School, Edinburgh
  • King Henry VIII School, Coventry

Genomics Zone

The Genomics Zone is part funded by The Genome Analysis Centre, as part of I’m a Scientist’s 2014 Big Data Season.

The Scientists:

Rebecca Gladstone
Postdoc at The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
I use super-computers to study DNA of 20,000 bacteria called the ‘pneumococcus’, this is to determine how well vaccination is working globally and identify those that continue to cause deadly meningitis and pneumonia.
Heather Ritchie
PhD Student at University of Aberdeen
Between taking to the high seas of the Pacific Ocean and spending the rest of my time at a lab bench I study the DNA of amphipods (crustaceans like ‘sand-hoppers’ that you find on the beach) that live at the bottom of the deep sea.
Ditte Hedegaard
PhD Student at University of Birmingham
I work on virus-infected livers! After a patient has received a new liver, I get the old infected one, which I cut into small pieces to I can find the viruses and look at their genes.
Dave Baker
The Genome Analysis Centre
I work on cool and expensive machines that reveal DNA’s make up
Ben White
The Genome Analysis Centre
I help scientists from around the world understand the genes in everything from tomatoes to naked mole rats.

The Schools:

  • Bluecoat Academy, Nottingham
  • Colchester County High School For Girls, Colchester
  • Bexleyheath Academy, Kent

Infectious Diseases Zone

The Scientists:

Ramya Bhatia
Postdoc at University of Edinburgh
My work involves understanding how a virus called human papillomavirus (HPV) infects humans and causes cancers of the cervix in women.
Peter Elliott
PhD Student at University of Manchester
Finding out how bacteria cause food poisoning
Keith Grehan
PhD Student at University of Kent
I’m a bat virologist – I study viruses that can be passed from bats to humans, like rabies, SARs and ebola, I try to figure out how they attack and damage cells and how they make the jump from bats to humans.
Hannah Tanner
Public Health England
How does your doctor know if you have an infection, what germ is causing it and what might cure you? Medical microbiologists like me design the tests that give doctors the answers they need to know how to treat you.
Bethany Dearlove
Postdoc at University of Cambridge
I’m a disease detective – I use genetics to track the spread of infectious diseases including norovirus, hepatitis C and HIV.

The Schools:

  • Garforth Academy, Leeds
  • Irchester Community Primary School, Irchester
  • King Edward’s School Oakbank School, Reading
  • Preston Lodge High School, East Lothian
  • Sandon School, Chelmsford
  • Trinity CE High School, Manchester
  • Woodrush High School, Wythall
  • Abingdon School, Oxfordshire

Proteins Zone

The Scientists:

Tobias Warnecke
Postdoc at Centre of Genomic Regulation
I look at why cells sometimes fail to read their own genetic manual and produce screwed-up proteins, and study how special caretaker molecules take out the trash to keep the cell healthy.
Sam Lear
PhD Student at Durham University
I use chemical reactions to make proteins (the building blocks of living things) from scratch
Lucy Remnant
PhD Student at Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre
I look at how cancer happens and how hopefully we can kill off cancer cells and leave normal healthy cells alone buy looking at the signals in the cells caused by a protein called Reptin.
Loren Macdonald
PhD Student at Newcastle University
Protein synthesis machinery and how, when it goes wrong, you can get diseases such as cancer.
Jo Nettleship
Oxford University
I produce lots of the microscopic constituents of living cells (called proteins) and then use X-rays to find out what they look like because I can then see how they go wrong when people get ill

The Schools:

  • Holly Lodge Girls College, Liverpool
  • Sandon School, Chelmsford
  • St Teresa’s, Surrey

Vision Zone

The Scientists:

Nancy Carlisle
Lecturer at University of Leicester
I can measure people’s brains from outside their heads, and using these simple electrical recordings I can see what they are paying attention to and what they can remember!
Michael Kelly
Postdoc at University of Manchester
I investigate how humans see in the dark or when dazzled by bright lights.
Emma Reid
Postdoc at Queen’s University Belfast
I use stem cells to repair damaged blood vessels in eyes which have become damaged by diabetes and vein occlusions
Elaine Gardener
Sauflon CL Ltd
How many bugs are on contact lenses that can eat away your eyes?
Andrew French
Lecturer at University of Nottingham
I teach computers to see and understand the world around them, using a bunch of cool cameras!

The Schools:

  • Bramdean School, Exeter
  • Dawlish Community, Dawlish
  • Jamiatul Ummah School, London
  • Penrice Academy, St Austell
  • St Teresa’s, Dorking
  • Doha College, Quatar
  • Haven High Academy, Boston

Water Zone

The Water Zone is funded by the Royal Society of Chemistry 

The Scientists:

Veronica Celorrio
Postdoc at University of Bristol
Oxide materials for producing energy from water using sun light
Jemma Rowlandson
PhD Student at University of Bath
My research looks at making cars that will one day be fuelled using water.
Harriet Aitken
PhD Student at University of Aberdeen
I’m a Chemical Engineer involved in the fight against arsenic; its a deadly chemical found in some drinking water around the world. Don’t panic though, I can shake it out using only nuts and bolts, honest! 
Emily Hayward
PhD Student at University of Bath
I clean wastewater using tiny little sieves so we can drink clean water without wasting energy during the cleaning process
Ben Butler
PhD Student at Bangor University
I fire some of the worlds most POWERFUL X-rays at ice cubes in order to see how and why frozen water behaves the way it does… pretty cool stuff!

The Schools:

  • Derby Moor Community Sports College, Derby
  • King Edward VI High School for Girls, Birmingham
  • Kingsbury high School, London
  • St Teresa’s School, Effingham

Barium Zone

A general science zone for primary schools.

The Scientists:

Ruth Nottingham
PhD Student at University of Nottingham
I study a bacterium that can eat other bacteria, they wriggle inside their victim and eat them, then make copies of themselves and burst out, I am learning about them so we could use them against disease causing bacteria.
Helen Gath
PhD Student at University of Reading
Emerald green, charismatic, and found only in the mountainous forests of a remote Island, the Echo Parakeet is an endangered bird I am studying to try and stop from becoming extinct!
Gemma Marsden
Senior Lecturer at University of Northampton
I play with Bacteria’s DNA to see what makes them NASTY!
Ekbal Hussain
PhD Student at University of Leeds
I use satellites in space to look at how the ground moves before, during and after earthquakes.
Andrei Luchici
PhD Student at University College London & King’s College London
I am looking at cells bumping into each other inside a fly egg to understand how cells move.

The Schools:

  • Farnham Primary School, Bradford
  • Lochgilphead Primary School, Lochgilphead
  • Rosslyn Park Primary School, Nottingham
  • St Andrew’s CE Primary, Sherborne

Praseodymium Zone

A general science zone for primary schools.

The Scientists:

Rebecca Williams
Lecturer at University of Hull
I am a volcanologist who studies flows of hot gas, ash and pumice that comes out of a volcano during an eruption.
Oliver George
PhD Student at University of Reading
I force a deadly bug found in your poo to live on plants so we can figure out how it works.
Heather Price
Postdoc at University of Southampton
I test the air to see if it’s toxic, to find out where dirty air has come from, and to work out what it might do to our insides when we breathe it in
Charlotte Flavell
Postdoc at University of Birmingham
I try to figure out how the brain stores our memories – both the scary ones and awesome ones of cake!
Andréa Cristini
PhD Student at Keele University
What makes stars shine?

The Schools:

  • Abbotsmede Primary School, Peterborough
  • AlexZ Romanian School, London
  • Penn Hall, Wolverhampton
  • Prendergast Vale College, London
  • Whittington CE Primary, Worcester

Neodymium Zone

A general science zone.

The Scientists:

PhD Student at University College London

Sakshi Sharda
PhD Student at University College London
Can some of us be fat while being thin?
Naomi Osborne
Thermo Fisher Scientific
I help bacteria grow by providing them with delicious nutrients they love; I then make them appear different colours so doctors can identify them and treat the patient with the right drug.
Matthew Piasecki
PhD Student at Manchester Metropolitan University
Motor neurons and skeletal muscle: Why do they change with ageing and can exercise help?
Ian Stephenson
Lecturer at Bournemouth University
I write software that makes animated movies look even more awesome
Edward Hughes
PhD Student at Queen Mary, University of London
I work out what happens when you smash particles together really hard, using some weird and wonderful new maths

The Schools:

  • Maghull High School, Liverpool
  • Penrice Academy, St Austell
  • Sir Jonathan North Community College, Leicester
  • Teddington School, Middlesex
  • Doha College, Quatar

Promethium Zone

A general science zone.

The Scientists:

Kevin O’Dell
Lecturer at University of Glasgow
Blame Your Parents: Why do you look and behave the way you are? Is it a conseqeunce of your genes, your environment or some combination of the two?
Fiona McLean
PhD Student at Rowett Institute (University of Aberdeen)
I delve into the brain and search for memories. Sometimes I find that memories have disappeared! I am trying to find out if unhealthy foods are causing them to vanish!
Elaine Cloutman-Green
PhD Student at Great Ormond Street Hospital
It’s my job to act as a hospital detective. I find the bugs work out whats happening and stop them spreading.
Darren Tan
PhD Student at University of Oxford
I try to understand why magnets feel frustrated.
Anna Bramwell-Dicks
PhD Student at University of York
Do you ever get annoyed when using your computer? I do Human-Computer Interaction research, so I’m interested in how we can make technology products that are easy and fun for people to use – NOT annoying!

The Schools:

  • Inverness High School, Inverness
  • Kingsbury high School, London
  • St Laurence School, Bradford on Avon
  • St Luke’s Science & Sports College, Exeter
  • Teddington School, Middlesex
  • Walthamstow Academy, London
  • Harris Academy, Morden
  • Langley Park School for Girls, Kent

Samarium Zone

A general science zone.

The Scientists:

Thomas Smith
Lecturer at King’s College London
I travel the world in search of wildfires to investigate how they interact with our atmosphere and climate change.
Tamas Korcsmaros
Postdoc at The Genome Analysis Centre
Antibiotics not only cure but could cause diseases – I use a program like Facebook to understand when antibiotics are good and when they are bad.
Linda Cremonesi
PhD Student at QMUL
Anti-matter is like matter “evil” version! Fortunately the universe is mainly composed of matter… why? We are trying to answer this question with various experiments all around the world!
Johanna Fischer
PhD Student at National Institute for Medical Research
I try to understand how decisions are made to become one cell type like a nervous cell, over another type of cell in the embryo
David Davilla
PhD Student at Karolinska Institutet
I use a microscope to look at a mouse’s brain (while it’s awake and walking around!) to try and figure out what exactly happens to the brain when we give it drugs!

The Schools:

  • Jedburgh Grammar School, Roxburghshire
  • Mangotsfield School, Bristol
  • Vyners School, London
  • Trentham High School, Stoke-on-Trent
  • The Holgate Academy, Nottingham
  • Lingfield Notre Dame, Surrey
  • Swallow Hill Community College, Leeds

Thanks to The Wellcome Trust for part funding the I’m a Scientist, Get me out of here, event. Thanks also to the STFC for funding the Astronomy, Diamond, and Extreme Energy Zones; the Royal Society of Chemistry for funding the Water Zone; and The Genome Analysis Centre for part funding the Bioinformatics, and Genomics Zones.

Posted on June 2, 2014 by andyhowells in News. Comments Off on Who’s taking part in June 2014