Public Engagement - September 2023

Life Through a Lens

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On the 12^th of September people from two labs worked together to engage with students at James Gillespie’s primary school about microscopy and research at the Centre! Ola Helwak, Katie Bexley and Michaela Ristova from the Tollervey lab visited the school with Jeraldine Weber from the Welburn lab with Julie Welburn herself, too, and Public Engagement Officer Maria Fanourgiaki.

91 students from P6 and their teachers found out about the development of microscopy from the 1600s to nowadays and how that contributed to biological knowledge through storytelling and hands-on activities. The students then learnt about Julie’s research and had a lovely discussion with everyone in the team, asking interesting questions from what a scientist’s job is and why their research projects are important to what their hobbies are.

Everyone in the group enjoyed their time working together and engaging with the students. The teachers and students, also provided great feedback saying they loved the workshop and learnt a lot.

Science in the City

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At the end of September, three researchers, the Public Engagement team and the Centre’s comic book artist travelled to Malta to take part to Science in the City, 2023 Malta’s Science Festival.

Bethan Medina (JP Lab), Lucy Remnant (Earnshaw Lab), Vasilis Ouzounidis (Cheerambathur Lab), Neil Bratchpiece (comic book artist), as well as Sarah-Jane Judge and Maria Fanourgiaki from the PE team ran several activities and engaged with the locals.

Our Centre’s ‘Tattoo my Science’ ran side-by-side with a team of researchers and Public Engagement staff from the Wellcome Centre at the University of Glasgow. Our tattoo stalls were very popular and we worked together to engage with over 250 people of all ages, most of which were young adults and families. Henna and water transfer tattoos helped us talk about our Centres’ research and hold interesting discussions with the locals.

The ‘Prader-Willi Superheroes’ exhibition and comic book was also showcased at the festival accompanied by a Comic Book Science workshop that was also very popular!