Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾

STEM for Britain (formerly SET for Britain) exists to raise the profile of Britain's early-stage researchers at Westminster by engaging Members of both Houses of Parliament with current science, engineering and mathematics research being undertaken in the UK, especially that by their local constituents and in their local University. Presenters are at the early part of their career - MSc/PhD/Post Doc or similar, either in academia or in industry.

The final of the 2017 STEM for Britain event took place this week, sponsored by Stephen Metcalfe MP, Chairman the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee and Science & Technology Committee (Commons).

He commented: "This annual competition is an important date in the parliamentary calendar because it gives MPs an opportunity to speak to a wide range of the country's best young researchers. These early career engineers, mathematicians and scientists are the architects of our future and STEM for Britain is politicians' best opportunity to meet them and understand their work." This year's Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ participants were:

Biosciences

• Dr Alma Buanz (Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ School of Pharmacy)
• Ana Rita Pinho (Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ Institute of Ophthalmology)
• Diogo Santos (Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ Institute of Cardiovascular Science)
• Cristina Tommasi (Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ Institute of Child Health)

Physical Sciences

• Lilian Hayes (Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ Chemistry)
• Marco Sabatini (Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ Chemistry)

Physics

• Anasua Chatterjee (London Centre for Nanotechnology)

Mathematical Sciences

• Pietro Servini (Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ Mathematics)

On presenting her research in Parliament, ÌýAna Rita Pinho (Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ Institute of Ophthalmology) said: "Being passionate about public engagement and science communication it is a great honor to have the opportunity to present my work in Parliament. I see this as a chance to reach a different audience and draw attention into ophthalmology, specifically the clinical challenges and socioeconomic aspects of corneal blindness".

Pietro Servini (Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ Mathematics) commented: "A lot of the time, maths is seen as the ugly duckling of the sciences: nobody quite knows what it's there for and schoolchildren grow into adults finding it boring and uninspiring.Ìý This is a sad state of affairs: maths is incredibly beautiful and creative, as well as underpinning basically all of the technology we use in our day-to-day lives.

"For me, STEM is an opportunity to make MPs aware of this: to show them how I'm using mathematical techniques in my work in what might be viewed as more of an engineering subject.Ìý And, possibly more importantly, to try to highlight the importance of collaboration with others in order to make progress: not just in science, but in politics too."

Links