Researcher recognised for delivering science festival to home town
SWANSEA University researcher Dr Claire Price has been recognised for bringing a science festival to South Wales.
The RSB Outreach and Engagement Awards celebrate researchers who communicate their scientific work using novel methods that effectively engage with their target audiences.
The New Researcher Award looks to celebrate those making outstanding strides in outreach and engagement within the first five years after graduation, whilst the Established Researcher award recognises those who are taking the lead in embedding outreach and engagement efforts at an institutional level.
This year, the winner of the Outreach and Engagement Award for an Established Researcher is Dr Claire Price, a researcher in the Centre for Cytochrome P450 Biodiversity at Swansea University.
Dr Price curated and delivered the first Bitesize Science Festival in her home town of Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales during the summer of 2019 – the first science festival of its kind in the town, and one of the first few to be held outside a university city.
The festival featured activities from more than 20 partner organisations, and saw more than 400 people attend throughout the day, including local ministers and MPS.
Dr Price also teamed up with the local high school and trained pupils to deliver science activities to younger children, with the help of researchers from Swansea University.
As a result of this, the high school has also launched its first science club to help pupils take part in more outreach and engagement.
A dedicated science communicator, Dr Price is also a STEM ambassador and a science advisor to Abercanaid Community School and has been previously involved in Soapbox Science events, Pint of Science events and other, more specialised science exhibitions.
Dr Price said of receiving the award: “I am completely shocked and awed to have received this award. I got involved in outreach and engagement because I love being able to share my passion for science with others.
“There is nothing quite like seeing the wonder and excitement in a person’s eyes when they see something for the first time. I am so lucky to have met so many wonderful people along the way and have learnt so much from them.
“In the future, I hope to carry on developing my outreach activities and reaching wider audiences with my engagement.”
Dr Steve Cross, chair of the award’s judging panel, said: “It was great for us to see such a wide group of researchers taking part this year, and it was great to see that outreach and engagement has become so embedded in the ways that biologists are working.
“For our winner of the Established Researcher Award, we absolutely loved the fact that Claire started new science festivals and new ways for biologists to engage outside of the usual places.
“We were also really impressed by Claire’s leadership; not only did she bring many of her fellow biologists on board, she even ended up collaborating with local politicians and Welsh ministers in the putting together of her events.
“Over the years that I’ve been on this panel we’ve looked at researchers who have started programmes that have gone on to spread across the UK and made a major difference to the way that members of the public connect with biology. The decisions that we make here really matter to us.”