Planetary Science Outreach and Engagement Award Winners 2025!

26 June 2025

We are delighted to announce the winners of this year's CPS Outreach and Engagement Awards, which were presented at our recent Summer Meeting.

Collage of four images, three showing outreach and engagement winners receiving their award certificates from the CPS Director and CPS Outreach Officer in front of a screen announcing the winners, and one (top right) with a head shot of Rebecca Warrilow.

We are delighted to announce the winners of the CPS Outreach and Engagement Awards 2025, recognising those CPS members who have given their time and expertise to planetary science outreach and engagement. The awards were announced at the CPS Summer Meeting on Tuesday 24th June, where the winners who attended were presented with their award certificates.

Joint Winners

Rebecca Warrilow - PhD student, Planetary Group, MSSL

In recognition of Becky’s wide-ranging and exemplary contributions to planetary science outreach and engagement, including her notable Widening Participation work leading educational events for autistic children with an interest in space, and her key contribution to the Your Universe Festival at UCL and Birkbeck at the MSSL Mars and Rosalind Franklin exhibit across three days, also delivering an exceptional presentation and contribution to the discussions during the Saturday evening Mars Missions panel event.

Marina Ventikos - PhD student, Astrophysics Group, MSSL

In recognition of Marina’s wide-ranging and exemplary contributions to planetary science outreach and engagement, including leading an Exoplanets Orbyts project for Year 10 students as well preparation for a number for engagements events this summer, including delivery of a lecture and workshop for the St Paul’s Summer School as part of a Widening Participation scheme.

Prize - £100 gift voucher each and certificate.

Runner-up

Anna Thomas – PhD student, Astrophysics Group, P&A

In recognition of Anna’s impact and exemplary contribution to planetary science outreach and engagement through her Orbyts Exoplanets projects at Brampton Manor, where her first project inspired 50 GCSE students to sign up to the programme this year.

Prize - £50 gift voucher and certificate.

Special Recognition

In addition to the top awards, the panel awarded the following individuals with special recognition for their outreach and engagement activities this year. Each receive a certificate:

Bryn Parry (PhD student, P&A-Astro) - for his Orbyts project at Chingford Foundation School.
Hiba Noor (PhD student, P&A-Astro) - for her Orbyts project at Kingsley Academy.
Jack Davey and Ruohan Liu (PhD students, P&A Astro) - for their co-delivery of Orbyts projects at Wimbledon High School for Girls and Ursuline High School.
Matt Kimberley (Undergraduate student, Birkbeck) - for his co-organisation and research contribution to the ‘Otherworldly’ public art exhibition.
The Birkbeck YUF Team: Catherine Baulamon, Tim Thatcher, Annamaria Paone, Cassy Swan, Grace Smith, Eleanor Jennings, Keyron Hickman-Lewis, Elisa Raffaella, Steve Hirons, Andrew Rushby and Ian Crawford - for the delivery of their highly engaging Planetary and Space Science exhibit at the UCL/Birkbeck Your Universe Festival 2025
The MSSL YUF Team: Rebecca Warrilow, George Kollakides and Connor Ballard - for the delivery of their highly engaging Planetary and Space Science exhibit at the UCL/Birkbeck Your Universe Festival 2025

Congratulations to all of our 2025 prize winners!

We hope this inspires those of you who are thinking of getting involved in outreach and public engagement. Please feel free to reach out to Karen-Anne Devoil and Jo Fabbri at the CPS if you would like any guidance or help in promoting your activities.

As you can see, many of those awarded this year have again been involved with the incredible Orbyts project, led by Will Dunn and the Orbyts leadership team. Orbyts is a truly rewarding science engagement opportunity with training and support, so please do get in touch with Will, Karen or anyone from the leadership team if you are interested in getting involved: https://www.orbyts.org/orbyts-leadership-team.

Warm congratulations to everyone who has contributed to outreach and public engagement endeavours this year, particularly students and early career researchers! A final thanks for all the nominations received and to the Awards Panel (Nick Achilleos, Karen-Anne Devoil, Mark Fuller and Jo Fabbri) for reviewing the submissions.

Image

Photo collage of award winners: (top left) Joint Winner Marina Ventikos with CPS Director Nick Achilleos and Marketing and Outreach Officer Karen-Anne Devoil; (top right) profile photo of Joint Winner Rebecca Warrilow; (bottom left) Runner-up Anna Thomas with Nick and Karen-Anne; (bottom right) Special Recognition awardees at the CPS Summer Meeting 2025. Credit: J. Fabbri.