STEM for Britain 2020

Each year the STEM for Britain awards are held at Parliament. Established by the late Dr Eric Wharton, STEM for Britain was set up to recognise outstanding research by early career scientists and provide them a chance to showcase their studies to members of parliament.

Since 2012, the IBMS has been a proud sponsor of the gold and silver awards for the biological and biomedical sciences categories.

IBMS President Allan Wilson addressed the audience: “In the years to come, I think that opportunities for biomedical scientists are set to expand considerably. If our health services are to maintain the expected high standards of care, new and emerging roles will be crucial, and we need innovative scientists like yourselves. 

That is why the STEM for Britain Awards are so valuable; they recognise the immense contributions researchers bring to the profession, and highlight the benefits our services bring to healthcare. With your research, you all have the potential to impact the health of people in the UK, and across the world.”

This year we were very impressed with the quality of research on display from the three winners of the biological and biomedical sciences category: 

Gold – Sarah Houston, Institute of Ophthamology, University College London, for her poster “Using the eye as a window to the brain in multiple sclerosis”

Silver – Karoliina Tuomela, Lydia Becker Institute of Immunology, University of Manchester for her poster “Radiotherapy can make cancer cells resistant to immune cell attack”

Bronze – Ted Roberts, School of Biochemistry, Biomedical Sciences, University of Bristol for his poster “Culturing neutrophils from stem cells to explore neutrophil cell biology and disease”

Following the awards, we met up with two of the winners, Sarah Houston and Karoliina Tuomela. Sarah said,

“I was honoured to attend a Newton's Apple science policy training delivered by Stephen Benn and Stephen Metcalfe. They encouraged all the students to apply for STEM for Britain and I’m grateful to them that I did. It was a surprise to win the gold and I’m so happy to have won.”

Karoliina added, “I’m really excited and feel great that I won the silver medal at STEM for Britain. It’s important for us as early career scientists to be able to communicate our research and I am proud to be here and have the chance to speak with MPs about my work.”

The event also gained attention on Twitter.

We tweeted from the event: