Schools Competition

We are pleased to announce the results of our Michaelmas Term 2019 School Science Writing Competition. We re‐ceived 254 entries from school students across the UK in Years 11-13, written to an incredibly high standard. The topic of the competition was “an unsung hero of science”. The winning article, selected by our panel of judges, was Cecilia: The Tale of Two Elements, by Jake Pugsley, Year 13, The Cotswold School, Gloucestershire. Jake will receive a £50 Amazon voucher. Eight runner-up articles were also selected by our judges, and will be published alongside the winning article on our website www.oxsci.org. Winner Cecilia : The Tale of Two Elements Jake Pugsley, Year 13, The Cotswold School, Gloucestershire Runners-Up Ibn Sina: the Father of Modern Medicine...Who? Mahma Hyder, Year 13, Wisbech Grammar School, Norfolk Charles Richard Drew: the Father of Blood Banking Dionne Jeevarajah, Year 13, Norwich High School for Girls, Norfolk Edward W. Morley: the Michelson-Morley Experiment and its Successful Legacy of Failure Kitty Joyce, Year 12, Oxford High School, Oxfordshire Jocelyn Bell Burnell: a Pulsar Pioneer Divya Kartik, Year 12, Guildford High School, Surrey Glavny Konstruktor (the Chief Designer) Jakub Sypek, Year 12, Peter Symonds College, Hampshire Mileva Maric: Eclipsed by her Husband Krishna Gowda, Year 11, Merchant Taylors Boys School Crosby, Merseyside Yuan Longping: China’s Father of Hybrid Rice Christina Jiang, Year 11, The Blue Coat School, Merseyside Alfred Russel Wallace: The Natural Selection for the Unsung Hero of Science Mirela Smolenska, Year 11, Benenden School, Kent Judges Ashvina Segaran is a breast surgeon in training who’s decided to trade in the scalpel for a pipette. She is currently doing a DPhil in Clinical Medicine, and her research is on obesity and breast cancer; particularly the tumour microenvironment and nucleotide metabolism. Carolyn Ten Holterhas a background in law, library science and communications. She now works on responsible innovation techniques and her research focuses on responsible quantum computing. Danielle Perro is a DPhil student in Women's and Reproductive health, where she focuses on endometriosisassociated pain. In addition to her studies, Danielle is involved in science communication and uses her platform, whether it be twitter or FameLab, to talk about all things women's health, ranging from endometriosis to menstruation. Jacqueline Gill is a DPhil student in Evolutionary Microbiology. She was a co-founder of the Oxford Scientist magazine, established the first national Oxford Scientist school science writing competition, and has continued running the competition ever since.

18 Should we focus on fixing our planet or move to a new one?

For a chance to win a prize and have your piece published in the OxfordScientist, send us your thoughts as a 700-word essay

by Friday 24 th January. Open to all UK students in Years 11 to 13. To submit, or for more information, email competition@oxsci.org go to our website oxsci.org.