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IHI PhD student shortlisted for Max Perutz Science Writing Award

28 September 2016

Fourteen outstanding articles have been shortlisted for this year’s Max Perutz Science Writing Award, the MRC’s annual writing competition. The winner, who will receive a £1,500 prize, will be announced at the awards ceremony on 13 October at the Royal Institution, London. The winner, runner-up and highly commended writers will be announced by competition judge Donald Brydon, MRC Chairman.

The Max Perutz Award asks MRC-funded PhD students to write up to 800 words about their research and why it matters, in a way that would interest a non-scientific audience.

More than 100 entries of a very high standard this year, which made the shortlisting a challenging task.

Farr PhD student, Victoria Allan, was shortlisted for her piece on “Preventing a heart that goes ba-boom, ba-, ba-, ba- , -boom, ba-boom”

The MRC Max Perutz Award is now in its 19th year and encourages MRC-funded researchers to communicate their work to a wider audience. Since the competition started in 1998, hundreds of researchers have submitted entries and taken their first steps in science communication.

The award is named in honour of one of the UK’s most outstanding scientists and communicators, Dr Max Perutzopens in new window. Max, who died in 2002, was awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work using X-ray crystallography to study the structures of globular proteins. He was the founder and first chairman of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, the lab which unravelled the structure of DNA. Max was also a keen and talented communicator who inspired countless students to use everyday language to share their research with the people whose lives are improved by their work.