Sam Horrell shines in London FameLab competition

Sam Horrell of Life Sciences has recently successfully competed in the London Final of Fame Lab outreach competition.

The vibrant, global outreach event requires entrants to present a complex scientific topic in just three minutes.

Sam, Structural Biology Facilities Manager in Life Sciences, did fantastically well, receiving the audience favourite award which was determined by vote after the talks. He was also runner up in the judges’ vote, only narrowly missing the top spot.

Fame Lab is the largest science communication competition and training programme in the world, first created as part of the Cheltenham Science Festival in 2005. It discovers, trains and promotes new voices in science. Participants have just three minutes to convey a complex scientific concept of their choice to an audience and expert panel of judges - with entrants using only their voice and optional small props. 

The judging panel for this event was:

• Robin Ince – Comedian, author, and co-host of The Infinite Monkey Cage
• Suze Kundu – Science communicator, nanochemist, and broadcaster
• Geoffrey Guy – Chairman of The Guy Foundation
• Catherine Loveday – Professor of neurophysiology at the University of Westminster

As part of the competition Sam submitted a three-minute video, showing how structural biology is used to make molecular movies of biomolecules in action. To illustrate this, he used the example of a series of pictures taken by Etienne-Jules Marey in 1894 of a cat writing itself in mid-air to land on its feet.

"I have learned a lot from the competition and feel much more confident in my ability to take a complex topic and communicate it in an accessible, entertaining, and memorable way. This is an important skill in any scientific career." Structural Biology Facilities Manager Sam Horrell

With the help of his toy cat Rosalind, Sam showed how the structure of the cat allows them to perform these mid-air acrobatics and discussed how we can take similar snap shots of proteins in action on an atomic level to understand how they perform all the functions essential to cellular life.

Sam’s hard work and creativity got him through to the London final where he presented a modified version of the talk, following a day long workshop at the University of Westminster, to a live audience and a panel of judges.

Sam said: ‘It was very gratifying to win the audience favourite award! I have learned a lot from the competition and feel much more confident in my ability to take a complex topic and communicate it in an accessible, entertaining, and memorable way.

I believe this is an important skill in any scientific career and I would wholeheartedly encourage others to give Fame Lab a go. Next year I might even give it another go with a new topic and see if I can get the judges on side this time!’

Huge congratulations to Sam for his fantastic achievement, which highlights just how important effective communication is in a scientific career.