Max Perutz science writing award 2009
2 June 2009
Budding scientists have the chance to explain the importance of their research to the general public and win £1000 in this year’s Max Perutz science writing award.
The prestigious award is open to all PhD students funded by the Medical Research Council and has attracted more than a thousand entries since it began 12 years ago. It is named after eminent scientist Professor Max Perutz, a prolific and talented communicator with a passion for sharing ideas about his research with the public.
The winning entry will be published in the Guardian newspaper.
In 800 words, MRC-funded PhD students are asked to describe what they do and explain why it’s important, in a way that would interest a lay audience. The article must be about their own research, but can include anything that they think would help people to understand what their studies are about, or convey the excitement and relevance of their research.
Award-winning poet and novelist Lavinia Greenlaw is part of the distinguished judging panel. She has published three books of poems, two novels and edited Signs and Humours, The Poetry of Medicine – which brings together 100 poems written over the last 2,000 years. She will be joined by the Guardian’s science and environment correspondent Alok Jha, MRC chief executive Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, director of the National Institute for Medical Research Professor Jim Smith and last year’s winner Mike Lee.
Entries should be submitted at www.mrc.ac.uk/Sciencesociety/Awards by 29 June 2009.
The winner and runners up will be invited to an awards ceremony in central London on 26 August 2009 and will secure a place on a masterclass with professional writers.
Notes
• Professor Max Perutz, who died in 2002, was a world-renowned scientist who helped to found the Medical Research Council's Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge.
• The Max Perutz science writing award was established 12 years ago aiming to support and reward scientists who convey the importance and excitement of their work in an accessible way.
Press contact: 020 7637 6011
press.office@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk
