Awards excitement for CRH

Birth Mirror success and reaching the finals of Science Writing Award.

This article was first published on 3 October, 2017

Dr Fiona Denison is delighted to have won the prestigious Converge Challenge 2017 Kickstart Challenge Digital Entrepreneur Award.

Fiona was presented with her prize - an ipad Air- at the Awards ceremony at Glasgow Science Centre on 28^th September. She was shortlisted as a finalist out of 212 entries.

The birth mirror is an Easily Adjustable Submersible Illuminated (EASI) birth mirror to help midwives and new mums to view the birthing process more easily.

This handheld, waterproof mirror could make water births safer and easier for mothers and midwives. It has a flexible, long shaft to reduce bending and potential back injury, an integrated and waterproof light source to help midwives see more easily, and a longer handle to reduce exposure to contaminated water.

On the back of this success, CRH’s Yannis Pavlidis has been shortlisted as a finalist for the MRC Max Perutz Science Writing Award, competing against over 100 entries to reach the final.

Yannis was tasked with writing an article which would inform the public why his research matters, in a writing style and manner that is both interesting and accessible to a non-scientific audience.

Yannis is undertaking a PhD in Cervical damage models for preterm birth studies. His research involves creating a new model of cervical damage that will help investigate the interplay between birth and ascending infection, which is the most common cause of damage to the cervix.

He will attend a science writing master class followed by an awards ceremony at the Royal Institution in London on 19 October and is in the running to win a £1,500 prize and the opportunity for his article to be published on the MRC Insight blog.

The Max Perutz Science Writing Award aims to support the career development of MRC PhD students, helping them build their skills to become tomorrow’s leaders in discovery science. It also aims to encourage and recognise outstanding written communication.

Since this competition began in 1998, hundreds of MRC researchers have submitted entries and taken their first steps in communicating their research to the public.

CRH wishes Yannis the very best of luck!

Note:

• The Max Perutz Science Writing Award is named after the eminent scientist and Nobel Laureate Dr Max Perutz.
• The 2017 prestigious judging panel is made up of: Donald Brydon, MRC Chairman; Dr Claire Ainsworth, freelance journalist and science writer; Sir Hugh Pelham, Director of MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology; Philippa Pigache, journalist and science writer, and Andy Ridgway, journalist and Senior Lecturer in Science Communication at the University of West of England in Bristol.