EPSRC Senior Media Fellowship for UCL chemist

The fellowship enables a leading researcher to devote time to develop a higher media profile, in order to advance public engagement with the physical sciences, mathematics and engineering via the broadcast, written and other media. Fellows are expected to act as high-profile 'champions' using regional and national media opportunities to:

• explain and interpret advances in their field in ways which are accessible to the general public
• convey the excitement and value of research to society.
• explain or debate issues for society arising from research in their area.

Among other projects, Dr Sella plans use his three-year fellowship to create a series of programmes on the relationship between two of the central players in climate change - impalpable and invisible gas carbon dioxide and the intangible idea of energy - a kind of environmental thermodynamics.

He said: "I aim to use simple but often spectacular demonstrations of chemical and physical ideas in order to make more concrete the issues surrounding climate change, in particular the challenges that need to be faced. I hope to indicate just how much CO2 many everyday processes produce, but I would also like to illustrate some of the fundamentals concerning energy - from what it is, to how it is converted, and particularly the idea of inefficiency - how, through the concept of entropy, it is rooted in the fabric of the universe. But I would also like to show how, by choosing appropriate technology, it may be possible to side-step these limitations."

To find out more about Dr Sella's work, use the link at the bottom of this article.

• Link: Dr Sella