It’s all very well being a marine biologist, or an astrophysicist but for those more at home with a microscope or a telescope there is a type of lens that can induce absolute panic – a camera lens, writes Dr Deborah McNeill, Director, Glasgow Science Festival.

This year Glasgow Science Festival is seeking to address that with a new project training post-grad researchers in the art of speaking to camera and presenting some of the ideas from this year’s Glasgow Science Festival to the wider public. And who knows, maybe the next superstar scientist will emerge to emulate the former D:Ream star?

Twelve post grad students from across the colleges at the University of Glasgow will be covering the festival from the other side of the camera between the 4 - 7 June – picking out the highlights and then cutting together short films to be broadcast on the festival YouTube channel.

Since their audience are unlikely to be crack physicists or chemists, the challenge will be to tell the stories in interesting and informative ways for the public at large. 

Glasgow Science Festival is taking place at various locations around the city between 4- 14 June and as this year celebrates the anniversary of James Clerk Maxwell’s theory of light – the Scottish genius whose work predicted radio waves and eventually made television a possibility – this project could not be more aptly timed.

You can find out about all the events and follow the progress of these new presenters by visiting Glasgow Science Festival.

First published: 31 May 2015

<< June