the-BA : perspectives winners announced

By Wendy Barnaby

Ms Georgina Humphreys, a PhD student from the University of Glasgow, has won the BA Festival of Science perspectives competition for her poster, Taking the bite out of malaria.

Her eye-catching poster explained simply why scientists need to understand how the malaria parasite develops in the mosquito, to improve their control and prevention of the disease.

The competition asked each scientist to answer two questions: what impact their research will have on society, and how it has been shaped by society.

Humphreys’s poster laid out social and ethical questions that the malaria research raises: Should we use donated blood for research? Why is the UK funding malaria research? Who benefits from this work?

"Putting the poster together really made me concentrate my mind on the key messages I wanted to get across," said Georgina Humphreys. "I began to think how and whether my research might impact people all over the world."

The runners-up were Mr Jamie Brown of the University of Cambridge, for his poster Learning secrets from autism, and Ms Berenice Golding of the University of Huddersfield, for hers: Can women consent to share their eggs?

Visitors to the exhibition also voted on the poster they rated most highly, and the People's Choice was Ms Jennifer Hannant of Newcastle University for Making technology come alive.

"This competition really does open your eyes to how to talk about your science and to get the public to relate in their own way to what you’re doing," said Jennifer Hannant. She works with DNA to make nanowires for electronics.

"The social implications drive my work," she said. "Everyone wants smaller, faster and more efficient technology."

"I’d like to suggest this to a lot of people I work with. I think we get so bogged down with what we’re doing that we lose track of everything else that’s going along."

"It is vital that scientists take time to address social and ethical concerns about their work," says Nigel Eady, Science in Society Officer at the BA (British Association for the Advancement of Science). "The perspectives competition gives young scientists the chance to step back from their research and ask these big questions. The judges felt that Georgina had clearly thought through the issues that influence her research whether political, environmental or moral."

perspectives is funded by Research Councils UK. Humphreys is supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC); Brown by the Medical Research Council (MRC); Golding by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and Hannant by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).