The new ambassadors of science
The search is on. NESTA FameLab, now in its third year, has started looking for science and engineering's faces of tomorrow. The competition aims to build a network of science communicators who can take the public image of science into the future, explains FameLab judge, Dr Mark Miodownik.
A revolution in science communication
It's a makeover science has been in desperate need of, according to Dr Mark Miodownik, one of the competition's judges, and Head of Materials Research at King's College London.
"In the history of ideas, science comes pretty high up," Mark points out. "But the culture of science departments isn't thriving. They're not reflecting science's heritage and its possibilities for the future. They're taking science and turning it into a machine for outputting graduates. I think science deserves better than that."
The problem derives partly from the way science is taught at school and university. But Mark believes the changes need to be tackled head-on, in the way scientists and engineers present themselves to the world.
He says: "Science needs to get its act together. People in science are muttering in their departments about how people don't understand us. But I say that if you want to change that, you have to get out there and talk. That's why we need FameLab people.
"All great scientists are creative people," says Mark. "If you go back to Hooke and Newton, they were intellectual explorers, doing extraordinary experiments. People thought they were crazy, but their discoveries changed the world. Children at school have no idea that science is revolutionary. We're looking for people who can communicate that."
Bringing scientists to the cultural frontline
By reaching out to vibrant scientists everywhere, NESTA FameLab hopes to seek out the great communicators hiding away in science, engineering, technology and maths. The judges are looking above all for content, clarity, and charisma.
"We need people who are willing to up the ante and rock the boat a bit," says Mark. "These are the people who fall out of the system and go into the arts, into radio or TV, and use their creative talents in a place where it's rewarded."
By pooling and training creative talent from around the UK, NESTA FameLab aims to reverse the traditional migration of the UK's creative minds to the media.
Everyone who enters the competition will be treated to a one-hour masterclass in science communication. And the winner and reserve from each regional heat will attend a weekend masterclass to hone their presentation skills.
Mark says: "Even if you don't win, you will still become part of a network of like-minded people, and through this network you can become one of the new ambassadors for science."
Famelab setting the benchmark
By nurturing a new community of science communicators, FameLab has currently set the benchmark in what science can bring to the public.
Other competitions and initiatives are funding public talks and activities. But no one else is targeting creative talent on such a wide scale, tapping undiscovered potential in the science community.
"What you want is T-shaped people," says Mark. "People with in-depth knowledge of one area, but also of how it interrelates to the rest of the world and society, to technology, to music, to art.
"That's a bit of a challenge for society, to get that educational transformation happening. I want Newsnight Review not just to invite a novelist, composer and poet to discuss the week's cultural events. I think there should be a scientist there too. Science, after all, is part of our culture."
Published March 2007
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