Jason Hunt (UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory) has struck Bronze at a competition in the House of Commons, for the excellence of his physics research, walking away with a £1000 prize.
Jason presented his physics research to dozens of politicians and a panel of expert judges, as part of the poster competition SET for Britain, on Monday 9 March.
His research, which focuses on constructing a global model of the Milky Way from the data returned by the European Space Agency’s Gaia satellite, was judged against 29 other shortlisted researchers’ work and came out as one of the three winners.
Jason said, “There were a lot of excellent posters at this year’s event and I’m very proud to have been awarded the Bronze Medal. I would like to thank the organising committee and the sponsors for making this event possible and allowing me to bring my research to Parliament. With the recent launch of Gaia, we are now entering an exciting time for Galactic astronomy. I hope that my poster has shown people one of the many things that we can do with this data.”
SET for Britain aims to help politicians understand more about the UK’s thriving science and engineering base and rewards some of the strongest scientific and engineering research being undertaken in the UK.
James Perham-Marchant, Director, Government and Academic Affairs, EMEA at John Wiley and Sons, sponsors of the Bronze Medal in the Physics Section, said: “Wiley is delighted to sponsor the bronze awards for biosciences and physical sciences. We have a long and proud tradition of publishing and disseminating pioneering and cutting edge research in these vital areas of scientific endeavor and for this reason, as well as for the recognition of the pivotal roles of these disciplines in scientific advancement, we are delighted to be a sponsor at the SET awards ceremony in London today.”
Dr Frances Saunders, President of the Institute of Physics, said, “SET for Britain is a great opportunity for some of the country’s most impressive scientific talent to show off their research to politicians from across the UK. I hope every exhibitor feels incredibly proud to have had their research shortlisted, and excited to show it off.”
The Parliamentary and Scientific Committee run the event in collaboration with the Council for Mathematical Sciences, the Institute of Physics, The Physiological Society, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Society of Biology and the Society of Chemical Industry, with financial support from BP, the Clay Mathematics Institute, Essar, INEOS, Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), Wiley, the Bank of England and the Institute of Biomedical Science.
Image
Left to Right: Philip Diamond, IOP’s Associate Director Programmes, Performance and Policy, Jason Hunt, Physics Bronze Winner, James Perham-Marchant, Director, Government and Academic Affairs, EMEA at John Wiley and Sons, Dr Stephen Benn, Society of Biology, Andrew Miller MP, Chairman of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee
Credit: © John Deehan
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