Hello and welcome to my first post. I am Ann, a PhD student at the Centre for Sustainable Heritage (UCL) where I am working on a PhD on ‘The Lifetime of Colour Photographs in Mixed Archival Collections’.
The PhD is in collaboration with The National Archives and supported by the AHRC/EPSRC Science and Heritage Programme.
The field of heritage science is very much an interdisciplinary field. Therefore, I am constantly in contact with people from a wide variety of backgrounds, including the general public, with whom I need to communicate my work.
So when I saw a bursary scheme from UCL’s graduate school to attend the Cheltenham Science Festival I was immediately interested. Where better to learn about science communication than by observing other scientists and engineers interacting with the public? In particular it should be good practice to observe how other scientists put their message across without detracting from the scientific accuracy of their work.
I sent in an application and it seems like they liked what I wrote! I got nominated by the graduate tutor as my department’s nominee, and furthermore I was chosen by the graduate school as one of ten students to receive a bursary to attend this festival.
The UCL Communications team then contacted us to ask if we would be interested in covering the festival for the UCL website. I was definitely up for the challenge!
As the Festival gets closer and closer, my excitement level is getting higher and higher. Can’t wait to attend the events, listen to the talks and debates and participate in the interactive experiences…and of course I will keep you posted!
