I’m a Scientist March 2015: Who’s taking part? – I'm a Scientist, Get me out of here!

I’m a Scientist, Get me out of here is back this March with 70 scientists, and 150 schools from Gairloch to Torquay, and one school from Spain.

UK Schools taking part in I’m a Scientist March 2015

The scientists will be competing for the school students’ votes in two weeks of fast-paced live chats and questions on everything from genes, to atoms, to space, to pizza.

For the latest news and announcements, find us on Twitter, @imascientist, and follow the hashtag, #IASUK.

Let’s meet the scientists and schools taking part…

Evolution Zone

This zone is organised on behalf of the University of Reading.

The Scientists

Adam Milligam | Postdoctoral at Queen’s University Belfast

I play with dogs to see if they are left or right handed and to see if left-handed dogs are less happy than right-handed dogs.

Emily Seward | PhD Student at University of Oxford

Parasites often face challenging or hostile environments within their hosts; I examine how plant parasites evolve to survive in new hosts as well as the genetics that makes this possible.

Stephanie Bryant |God and The Big Bag Project Coordinator

I work on a project called ‘God and the Big Bang’, where I get young people to think about how science and religion can fit together; I am also a trained zoologist and conservation scientist.

Thaddeus Aid | PhD Student at the University of Oxford

I look for mutations that help humans survive and thrive.

Thomas Clements | PhD Student at the University of Leicester

I am a palaeontologist who specialises in how squishy things (like worms) turn into fossils!

The Schools

Alec Reed Academy, Northolt
Doonfoot Primary School, Ayr
Farnham Primary School, Bradford
Friskney All Saints Primary School, Friskney
Headlands Primary School, Haxby
Longton Primary School, Longton
Meadowbrook Primary School, Bradley Stoke
Ralph Sadleir School, Puckeridge
St John’s RC Primary, Bridgnorth
Upton Heath C of E primary school, Upton

Genes Zone

The Scientists

Barbara Shih | Postdoctoral at the University of Manchester

Juggling vitamin D levels and DNA damage from sunlight in human skin.

Matthew Moore | PhD Student at the Institute of Infection and Global Health, University of Liverpool.

Using artificial intelligence to learn from the DNA sequences of mostly normal, harmless bacteria why they are disease-causing and even deadly to certain humans!

Ravinder Kanda | Postdoctoral at the University of Oxford

10% of our DNA comes from viruses; that’s quite a lot when you consider only 2% of our DNA is genes, so how did the viruses get there and why are they there?

Sophie Robinson | PhD Student at the Brighton & Sussex Medical School

I cut, paste and modify DNA in a test tube to discover the causes of blood cancer.

Tristan Smith | PhD Student at the University of Bath

Genetic engineering of new yeasts from cider and wine to sustainably produce perfume chemicals.

The Schools

All Saints Catholic College, Bradley Bar
Birchwood High School, Bishops Strotford
Brislington Eneterprise College, Bristol
Dartford Science and Technology College, Dartford
LSA Technology & Performing Arts College, Lytham St Annes
King Edwards VI College, Nuneaton
MidKent College, Kent
Reigate Grammar School, Reigate
Sir John Thursby, Burnley
Staindrop School, Staindrop
Teesdale School and Sixth Form College, Barnard Castle
Tile Hill Wood, Coventry
Thomas Gainsborough School, Great Cornard
Walton High School, Stafford
Whitdale Primary, Whitburn

Green Chemistry Zone

This zone is funded by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

The Scientists

Alan McCue | Postdoctoral at the The University of Aberdeen

Most people think chemicals are dangerous and bad for the planet but I make special ones which are safe and really really good for the planet – I’m a chemical superhero!

Becky Gregory | PhD Student at the University of York

I look at how bacteria eat plants to see if we can use their digestion methods on waste as an alternative to fuel for our cars.

Jo Sadler | PhD Student at the GlaxoSmithKline (University of Strathclyde)

I invent tiny enzymes that are going to save the world from certain destruction.

Sankar Meenakshisundaram | Lecturer at the Cardiff Catalysis Institute

I am interested in developing catalysts to use waste biomass as a renewable alternative to crude oil to produce chemicals and fuels.

Sarah Kirk | PhD Student at the University of Bath

I make plastics from plants, which can then degrade back into plant material – it’s renewable chemistry!

The Schools

Downend School, Downend
Fitzharrys school, Abingdon
Glastry College, Ballyhalbert
Jamiatul Ummah School, London
King James’s School, Knaresborough
Little Lever School, Bolton
MidKent College, Kent
Rawlett School, Tamworth
St Cuthbert Mayne, Torquay
St James Cof E Middle School, Bury St Edmunds
St. Joseph’s College, Dumfries
St Teresa’s School, Dorking

Immune System Zone

The Scientists

Carmen Denman | Postdoctoral at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

I design vaccines to protect people against really dangerous bacteria that could be used if there was ever a threat of biowarfare.

Daniel Vipond | PhD Student at the Institute of Food Research

The human gut acts as physical barrier separating the bacteria and food, which they help digest, from our blood – if the barrier breaks down it may trigger the immune system to respond to bacteria ‘leaking’ from the gut into the blood.

Laura García Ibañez | PhD Student at the University of Birmingham

I study the cells that fight against all the bugs, viruses and other bad things that enter your body so you don’t get sick.

Noel Carter | Lecturer at the University of Sunderland

How to increase the number and quality of organs available for transplantation.

Stephanie Dyson | PhD Student at the University of York

I work in computational immunology, so I make little dots on the computer screen act like the cells in our body so that we can try to understand why people get certain diseases and how we can make them better.

The Schools

Brookfield Community School, Chesterfield
City Of London Boys School, London
Gairloch High School, Gairloch
Grangemouth High, Grangemouth
Howell’s School, Llandaff
Impington Village College, Impington
King Edwards School, Birmingham
MidKent College, Kent
Moulton School and Science College, Moulton
Nottingham High School, Nottingham
Newstead Wood School, Orpington
St. Paul’s School, Barcelona
The City Academy, Hackney
Westcliff High for Boys, Leigh on Sea

Light Zone

This zone is funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council.

The Scientists

Dave Bond | PhD Student at the Diamond Light Source

Modelling shockwave movement after an ultra-intense laser pulse hits a target. This is so we can better model laser-fusion targets for nuclear fusion.

Ed Rial | Postdoctoral at the Diamond Light Source

I create light ten billion times brighter than the Sun for Diamond Light Source, using the most powerful permanent magnets on Earth, superconductors working near absolute zero, and electrons travelling nearly at the speed of light.

Guido Bolognesi | Postdoctoral at the Imperial College London

As in a Sci-Fi movie, I use laser beams to trap and manipulate objects in order to study their physico-chemical properties, those objects (such as glass beads or liquid droplets) being very very small, typically a hundredth the size of a human hair.

Hugh Harvey | Postdoctoral at the Institute of Cancer Research

I use X-ray vision to look at your brain, bones and other bits!

Mariastefania De Vido | STFC Central Laser Facility

I’m developing high energy lasers which will help improve everybody’s life by treating diseases, producing environmentally clean energy, increasing the quality of weather forecasts… and much, much more!

The Schools

Allestree Woodlands School, Allestree
Burgess Hill School, Burgess Hill
Cheney School, Headington
North Somerset Enterprise and Technology College, Weston-Super-Mare
Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School, West Street
Slemish College, Ballymena
St Benedict’s School, Ealing
Tanbridge House School, Horsham
The King David High School, Crumpsall
Thornden School, Chandlers Ford
Withington Girls School, Manchester

Materials Zone

This zone is funded by the Royal Society of Chemistry and it’s aimed at primary schools only.

The Scientists

Elizabeth Cooper | Shepherd Widnes Ltd.

A science detective – I investigate and solve problems using chemistry!

James Coombs O’Brien | PhD Student at the The University of Bath

Hello! My work involves using plants to create useful environmentally friendly materials that can be composted.

Martin Ward | Postdoctoral at the The university of Edinburgh

I use lasers to make crystals, it is hoped that these experiments will help us figure out why and how crystals form.

Martin Wieczysty | Postdoctoral at Fujifilm

I make the active ingredient that makes inks colourful.

Robert Woolfson | PhD Student at the University of Manchester

I make very special molecules that might help us make completely new types of computers.

The Schools

Hillcroft Primary School, Caterham
Holytown Primary School, Holytown
Horniman Primary School, London
Juniper Green Primary, Edinburgh
St Andrew’s CofE Primary, Yetminster
St Edward’s Prep school, Reading
St Mary’s Primary, Ayrshire
The Linden AIC, Overdale
Westpark, Northfield

Medical Physics Zone

This zone is funded by The Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM) with support form the Institute of Physics (IOP).

The Scientists

Clare Devery | NHS

I work with MRI scanners in hospitals to make sure the doctor sees the very best picture possible of inside your body.

Glafkos Havariyoun | King’s College Hospital

I’m a medical physicist, my work involves using radiation and physics to help patients.

Paul Booker | Postdoctoral at the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust

I work in a hospital, curing people by firing radiation from multi million-pound machines to zap their cancer.

Pauline Hall | Postdoctoral at the NHS

I use magnets to take pictures of inside your body…figure that one out!

Samantha Terry | Postdoctoral at the King’s College London

I use radioactivity to find and light up cancer in the body to help patients.

The Schools

Archbishop Holgates
Blessed Edward Oldcorne Catholic College
Boston Spa
Charters School
Cranford Community College
Didcot Girls School
Fulford School
Millthorpe School
Smithdon High School, Norfolk
Tendring Technology College, Essex
The Cooper School
Vandyke Upper School, Bedfordshire
Witchford Village College, Cambridgeshire

Molecules Zone

This zone is funded by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

The Scientists

Alexander Henderson | PhD Student at the University of Bristol

I stick metals to sugars to do useful chemical reactions.

Anais Pujol | Postdoctoral at the Antikor Biopharma

I am a chemist/biochemist and I am involved on new drug development for medical application in the area of diagnosis and treatment.

Peter Maskell | Lecturer at the University of Huddersfield

Murder or Suicide: Importance of Forensic Toxicology.

Sarwat Iqbal | Postdoctoral at the Cardiff Catalysis Institute

I am developing a catalyst material for the production of clean fuel.

Shreesha Bhat | PhD Student at the University of Lincoln

I am a medicinal chemist, who helps chemical molecules to interact with each other, so that they can form a bond of friendship and become drug-like compounds that can be used to treat various diseases.

The Schools

Alcester Grammar School, Alcester
Berkshire College of Agriculture, Burchetts Green
Hammersmith Academy, London
Kingsmead, Wiveliscombe
Manor College, Hartlepool
Moor End Academy, Crosland Moor
Overton Grange, Surrey
Sir Charles Kao UTC, Harlow
St Bartholomews, Newbury
St Killian’s College, Carnlough
St Margaret’s CE Academy, Liverpool
St Francis Xavier’s College, Liverpool
Swanmead Community School, Ilminster
Ysgol Dewi Sant, St. Davids

Particle Physics Zone

This zone is funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council.

The Scientists

Jaclyn Bell | PhD Student at the The University of Liverpool

I’m a Theoretical Physicist – I’m really lucky because in my job I get to learn all about how tiny particles, which make up everything we see around us, can smash together at really high energies.

Michele FaucciGiannelli | Postdoctoral at the Royal Holloway University of London

Marie Curie Fellow in particle physics working in the ATLAS experiment on Higgs physics.

Oliver Brown | PhD Student at the Heriot-Watt University

I am a computational quantum physicist – which means my computer simulates and investigates quantum systems, while I drink coffee and take all the credit!

Vicky Bayliss | STFC

I design powerful electromagnets to operate at -268°C to steer the beam in particle accelerators.

Yelong Wei | PhD Student at the Cockcroft Institute

Tabletop electron accelerator is possible in the future.

The Schools

Bournemouth School, Bournemouth
Christ’s College Guildford, Guildford
Colton Hills Community School, Wolverhampton
Derby Moor Community Sports College, Littleover
Harris Academy Chafford Hundred, Chafford Hundred
Lancaster Girls’ Grammar School, Lancaster
Sawtry Community College, Sawtry
Sheffield High School, Sheffield
St Bartholomew’s School, Newbury
St. John Payne School, Chelmsford
St Teresa’s School, Droking
The City Academy, Hackney
The Weald School, Billingshurst
Whitburn CE Academy, Whitburn

Sustaining Health Zone

The Scientists

Cristiane Calixto | Postdoctoral at the University of Dundee

Inside plants there is a tiny clock made of genes that tells when is time to flower and I want to know how this clock works by using my computer and analysing these clock genes in the lab.

Nicki Whitehouse | Professor at the University of Plymouth

I study changes in climate, ecosystems and species over the last 450,000 years.

Nikolai Adamski | Postdoctoral at the The John Innes Centre, Department for Crop Genetics

I am a plant geneticist working with wheat and I try to create new varieties of wheat that yield more grain and are more nutritious to help fight hunger in the world.

Richard Simons | PhD Student at the Imperial College London

I use invisible UV light to blast bacteria, making unclean water safe to drink.

Samuel Ellis | PhD Student at the Institute of Food Research, Norwich Research Park

My work involves finding out how some nasty bacteria in food (the kind that gives you diarrhoea!) stick to the inside of your guts and grow – and I used to study parasites from African flies that can invade your blood and brain!

The Schools

Bishopgarth School, Stockton on Tees
DeFerrers Academy, Burton on Trent
Elton High School, Bury
Farlingaye High School, Woodbridge
Inverness High School, Inverness
Lucton School, Herefordshire
Manor CE Academy, Nether Poppleton
Okehampton college, Okehampton
Queen Elizabeth’s School, Wimborne Minster
Queensferry Community High School, South Queensferry
Rushbury Ce Primary School, Church Stretton
Smithycroft Secondary School, Riddrie
Woodchurch high school, Wirral

Terbium Zone

This is a zone funded by the Institute of Physics.

The Scientists

Angeline Burrell | Postdoctoral at the University of Leicester

I investigate the ionosphere – a layer of plasma in the Earth’s atmosphere that interacts with radio waves and satellite signals – to figure out how and why different plasma structures form and change in response to long-term changes in the sun.

Catherine Vlahakis | Lecturer at the Joint ALMA Observatory / European Southern Observatory, Chile

I use the world’s most powerful telescopes to study the Universe in more detail than ever before – to find out how stars, galaxies, black holes, or even other solar systems work and how everything in the Universe comes to exist!

Luke Maidment | PhD Student at the Heriot Watt University and Dstl

With very short bursts of laser light, I create an invisible infrared laser beam to use to detect dangerous chemicals from a safe distance away.

Philip Moriarty | Professor at the University of Nottingham

We’re trying to do 3D printing with the smallest building block possible: atoms.

Shona Whittam | NHS

My work in Radiotherapy Physics involves planning patients cancer treatments, looking after the machines that deliver the treatments and doing patient measurements to ensure the patient receives the correct dose of high-energy X-Rays.

The Schools

Archbishop Holgates
Bishop of Hereford Bluecoat
Boston Spa
Charters School
Christopher Whitehead
Cranford Community College
Didcot Girls School
Framwellgate School Durham
Fulford School
Gosforth Academy, Newcastle
Millthorpe School
Richmond School
The Cooper School
Whitley Bay High School

Dysprosium Zone

The Scientists

Anna Ashton | PhD Student at the University of Aberdeen

I’m studying the hormone of the night, melatonin, which is responsible for controlling daily patterns in the body’s activity like what time you fall asleep at night and wake up in the morning.

James Pope | Postdoctoral at the British Antarctic Survey

I investigate Antarctic sea ice to see what happens to it due to climate change.

Joe Spencer | PhD Student at the University of Southampton

I’m designing the future of nanoscale electronics that go in your mobile phones, by shooting lasers at super strong wires that are around 10000 time thinner than a hair.

Leonie Oostwoud Wijdenes | Postdoctoral at the University College London

I’m a human movement scientist who investigates how our brain controls eye-hand coordination, for example to understand how we play ball sports or computer games.

Olivia Lynes | PhD Student at Lancaster University

I use some of the UK’s fastest supercomputers to look into how we can better store nuclear waste.

The Schools

Biddick Academy, Washington
Caroline Chisholm School, Northampton
Dunblane High School, Dunblane
Inverness High School, Inverness
King Richard School, Portsmouth
Prendergast Vale College, London
Somervale School, Midsomer Norton
Sandymoor School, Sandymoor
The Fulham boys school, London
Temple Moor High School, Leeds

Holmium Zone

The Scientists

Frank Longford | PhD Student at the University of Southampton

Discovering mysteries of the surface of water using simulations on supercomputers.

Ian Sandal | Postdoctoral at the The University of Sheffield

I design , make and test lasers for lots of different uses including moblie phones, the internet and hospitals.

Isabel Pires | Lecturer at the University of Hull

In my lab we study how low oxygen in cancers makes cancer cells go nasty and move to other parts of the body, in hope to discover how we can better spot and target them before the tumour has a chance to spread.

Jared Parnell | PhD Student at Durham University

The eyes of people and animals and how they see the world.

Zena Hadjivasiliou | Postdoctoral at University College London

Why do we need both males and females (so two kinds of sexes) for sexual reproduction? – I study this question with inspiration from maths and physics!

The Schools

All Saints Catholic High School, Rawtenstall
Archer Academy, East Finchley
Birchwood High School, Bishop’s Stortford
Bluecoat Academy, Nottingham
Broadoak, Weston-Super-Mare
Crompton House CofE School, Oldham
Inverness High School, Inverness
Robert Blake Science College, Bridgwater
St Mary’s Catholic High School, Manchester
Thefield school, Leatherhead
The Gateway Academy, Grays
Sir Jonathan North Community College, Leicester

Erbium Zone

The Scientists

Hepzi Tagoe | PhD Student at UCL Institute of Child Health

I grow and study skin from rats and humans to help me understand why some people have smooth skin and others have rough skin.

Imogen Napper | PhD Student at Plymouth University

I am researching plastic pollution in the ocean; where does it come from and what happens to it!

Jen Machin | PhD Student at Newcastle University

I study how children learn to think about things that have happened to them in the past, and things that will happen in the future (this is called mental time travel!).

Jennifer Rudd | Postdoctoral at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill

We are mimicking photosynthesis using coloured molecules with metals, sunlight hits our molecules in a water solution and then we see bubbles of hydrogen and oxygen.

Thomas Barrett | PhD Student at the The Open University

I’m looking for water in space rocks that have crashed into Earth to try and work out how asteroids form.

The Schools

Bexleyheath Academy, Bexleyheath
Bullers Wood School, Chislehurst
Cheney School, Headington
Dunblane High School, Dunblane
Hendon School, London
Larkmead School, Abingdon
Minster School, Southwell
Silverdale School, Sheffield
The Ravensbourne School, Bromley
The John Lyon School, Harrow on the Hill
Ursuline High School, London
Westbridge Pupil Referral Unit, Ipswich