Judges
SciCast is lucky and proud to have a fantastic panel of judges, who represent a range of academic disciplines and bridge the gap between proper science and popular entertainment. You may recognise some of them…
Jem Stansfield
You’ll have seen Jem building ridiculous contraptions on BBC 1’s Bang Goes The Theory. He welds, he grinds, he saws, he glues, he blows things up, he puts them back together again. He’s also be seen on Scrapheap Challenge and Men in White on Channel 4, Science Shack on BBC2, and many more.
Dr Alice Roberts
Alice is a lecturer in anatomy at the University of Bristol, and presents series including Coast, The Incredible Human Journey, and Don’t Die Young. She always seems to judge SciCast films while sitting in some far-flung and exotic part of the world, huddled over a laptop at some campfire or other. Alice represents biology in the SciCast judging panel.
Dr Basil Singer
Baz, with a PhD in Quantum Mechanics, has been seen on BBC3 (Bullshit Detectives), Channel 4 (Men in White), and on PBS in America. His spare time is spent pursuing high adrenaline sports, which rather rubs off on his physics. Baz is the SciCast judging panel’s physicist.
Louisa Bolch
Louisa was formerly the commissioner of science programmes for Channel 4, where she was responsible for … actually, pretty much everything they did for years. So she knows her television onions. Currently, she’s a board member of the British Antarctic Survey and a non-executive director of the Advertising Standards Authority. Louisa represents both ‘proper’ television, and enthusiastic non-scientists on our judging panel.
Dr Iain Stewart
Like Alice, Iain always seems to be in the middle of nowhere come judging time, struggling to watch SciCast films via some dodgy satellite internet connection or other. Last year, he was in the desert in Iran. Or so he claimed. Iain’s a lecturer in Geodynamics at the School of Earth, Ocean and Environmental Science at Plymouth University. He’s also been putting geosciences on the TV map with series like Journeys From The Centre of The Earth and Earth: The Power of the Planet. Clearly, he represents geosciences on the SciCast judging panel.
Mark Miodownik
Mark represents chemistry on the panel, and is a world expert in… well… stuff. He’s a lecturer in materials science at Kings College London, and an EPSRC Senior Media Fellow — which means he does lots of public engagement work as well as teach and research. Busy man. He knows a bit about short films too: his Materials Library project was featured in short films commissioned by NESTA and The British Council.