Author: gillecdt

The College of Engineering and Physical Sciences requests the pleasure of your company at the Inaugural lecture of Cristina Lazzeroni. Details below.

Public Engagement with Research Committee would also like to congratulate Cristina on her inauguration. Cristina is also a member of the new Leading to Engage cohort, a group of academics who champion public engagement with research within their Colleges. She has an impressive track record in carrying out impactful engagement activities. 

Professor Cristina Lazzeroni, Professor in Particle Physics
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham

Wednesday 25 May 2016, 5.15pm

Lecture Theatre 117, Physics West building, followed by a drinks reception in Seminar Room 1 (West 103)

Cosmological theories suggest that the Universe was created with equal amounts of matter and antimatter.  Evolution to a matter-dominated Universe requires that matter and antimatter behave differently from one another, giving rise to a quantum phenomenon known as CP violation.  This has been detected experimentally, but at a lower level than is required to explain the amount of matter that survives in the Universe today.

In this lecture, Professor Cristina Lazzeroni outlines the journey towards understanding CP violation in the context of the Standard Model of Particle Physics and beyond.  She focuses on her work in experiments at CERN, which study the behaviour of particles with properties labelled beauty and strangeness. She demonstrates how current investigations of rare processes provide some of the most stringent tests so far of the Standard Model, and may reveal new sources of CP violation.

If you wish to attend this event, please complete the online registration form

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For further information please contact: epscommunications@contacts.bham.ac.uk

PERC asked Janine Fenton (School of Biosciences) to write a short blog piece on the recent public engagement work she has been involved with. Janine applied for funding from the Public Engagement with Research Committee to put on ‘A Nervy Christmas Workshop‘ last December.

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Janine Fenton

I have a keen interest in Bio art and its use in science outreach. I worked on several science based art works both individually and in collaborations with other artists. The artworks have gone into exhibitions here. The venues have included Birmingham Open Media (BOM) Gallery, Midlands Art Centre (MAC), The Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (RBSA) Gallery, The Lighthouse gallery, Brighton and galleries abroad.

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Image courtesy of BOM

These pieces are designed to encourage a non-scientific audience to think about science in society. I have also talked to the public and artists at about science and my work in research at workshops and open labs in galleries. The most resent outreach project I organized myself with the gallery, applying for funding from the university (Public Engagement Research Committee) producing artworks that were based on some of my research into the drosophila nervous system. These pieces were shown at BOM and in the Reception of the Bizz Inn, Birmingham Research Park. I then gave a workshop and a gallery open day explaining the work with the flies, microscope and specimens, and the research results for them to look at as well as hands on activities. Finally a video record of the outreach piece was put online for all.

Watch below:

These kind of outreach days involve talking to people from a wide range of backgrounds. Children and adults people with little education to those of exceptionally high education in art, humanities or science. You have to give a simple but not over simplified over view of the topic. Awareness of peoples sensitivities is important especially as biology and fly genetics can require some discussion of reproduction and reproductive organs which is still taboo.

The project opened up discussions around the science of the flies nervous system, the flies ability to feel and the implications of this the experiments including ethical and practical issues. I had children visit and they were quite excited about mutant flies and genetic manipulation and asked lots of great questions. As well as this I learned to use twitter to extend the interactions from the gallery to a wider audience.

There were also feedback forms and a name the neurone competition to try and engage the publics and find out how they gained from the experience. The responses were positive and very encouraging.

More outreach involvement is planned.

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If you would like to write a case study on your public engagement work, get in touch: engage@contacts.bham.ac.uk

Read more case studies here

“Wellcome is a proud champion of public engagement which places science at the heart of the cultural landscape. Over the last twenty years we have spent more than £230m supporting projects that find creative ways to involve people in conversations about how science and research shapes our health, our lives and our society. Across drama, film, art and games, in venues, festivals and galleries across the world, we have seen the extraordinary value of bringing research and culture together and the impact it has on enthusiastic and growing audiences.

The launch of a new strategic framework at Wellcome last October gave us an opportunity to reflect on how we deliver support for public engagement activities and challenge ourselves to make it even better. After listening to feedback we have decided to take a short pause in our funding activities in order to properly review the way we support great ideas and make our systems more responsive, faster, and better able to support the projects and people whose inspiring work drives everything we do.

Our support for public engagement will not be reduced. This temporary break is entirely focused on enabling us to be more agile, to make our schemes easier to understand and navigate and to reduce barriers to access so that we can support ideas from the broadest possible range of people and organisations. We want to ensure our schemes encourage and enable collaborations between our communities and we are keen to do more to nurture talent.

From August 2016 our existing Engaging Science funding schemes will not be open for new applications. The new funding framework will be announced in November 2016 with the first deadlines for submission in early 2017.

There will be an opportunity to submit an application to most of our regular funding schemes before the end of July, the final deadlines are:

• Capital Awards – 13 May
• People Awards – 20 May
• Small Arts – 1 June
• Co-Production Awards (Large) – 17 June
• Co-Production Awards (Small) – 8 July
• Development Awards – 27 July

The following schemes will not have a further deadline in 2016:

• Large Arts
• Society Awards
• Sustaining Excellence
• Engagement Fellowships
• International Engagement

We will still be launching the Inspiring Science Capital Fund this summer, in partnership with BIS.

If you submit an application by these deadlines or already have an application with us please be assured these will progress as normal.”

For further info: GO HERE for the original article

Read the full article over at The Conversation, excerpts below.

“In recent years, being able to engage the general public with Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) has become part of the job for many academics, who are increasingly required to show that their research is relevant and provides benefits to society. Research councils now demand that scientists detail their pathways to impact. Media training has become routine for most scientists working in a higher education institution and outreach has become an activity you must report against annually and detail on your CV.”

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“The low visibility of women in science is one explanation for the paucity of senior female scientists. Without accessible, visible role models it is difficult to attract and retain women in science.

Science communication techniques can be used to provide more visible women in science. Many of our country’s top female scientists are eager to engage with the public and share their stories and experiences through their career, but it is an uphill struggle. Soapbox Science is so far the only UK science event that actively promotes the participation of women in science.”

Authors:

Nathalie Pettorelli Research Fellow, Institute of Zoology

Seirian Sumner Senior Lecturer in Behavioural Biology, University of Bristol