Ten contestants from four Dutch universities – including two contestants from the University of Twente – will battle it out to be the jury’s overall winner of the Dutch FameLab competition 2021. The final of this science communication competition takes place online on Tuesday, June 1st as part of the program for Dutch Technology Week. The winner will represent the Netherlands in the international FameLab competition later this year. In addition, there will be a separate audience award selected by the live audience on the night.
For young researchers starting on their scientific journey, effective communication of their work is critical. FameLab is an international science communication competition that provides these researchers with the platform to tell their research stories in bite-sized 3-minute pitches for a general audience. No slides, just words and optional props – it’s a truly unique way to communicate science.
UT-representatives
The University of Twente is represented by two researchers: Vasileios Trikalitis and Ying Wang. Trikalitis conducts his PhD on 3D printing vascularized cardiac tissue, in the Vascularization Lab of Jeroen Rouwkema (Faculty of ET) at the University of Twente. He also works as a product developer in IamFluidics B.V. and is a founder and director of the Authentia Foundation.
Wang is an assistant professor in the Biomedical Signals and Systems group (Faculty of EECMS) and works on seizure detection in persons with epilepsy and freezing-of-gait detection in persons with Parkinson’s disease.
On June 1st Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) hosts the national final of FameLab. Ten young researchers from four Dutch universities – University of Twente (UT), Wageningen University & Research (WUR), Amsterdam UMC, and TU/e will compete for the prize of FameLab National winner 2021.
Two awards
The selection of the overall winner of FameLab NL 2021 is down to a four-person expert jury. First off there’s Liza Cornet – winner of FameLab NL 2020. After her FameLab success, Liza is now working full-time as a science communicator, encouraging researchers to share their scientific stories with audiences outside academia. Next, there’s Ruchi Bansal, Associate Professor at the University of Twente, whose research group focuses on the development of therapeutics for the treatment of liver disease. Then there’s Jim Jansen, who is the editor-in-chief for the popular science magazine New Scientist. And the final member of the jury is Chiel van Heerwaarden, Associate Professor in meteorology at WUR.
The jury has the unenviable task of picking the winner from the ten contestants, who will go on to represent the Netherlands in the International FameLab competition. In addition to the jury award, there will be an audience award, which will be voted on by the audience during the live event.
Register to attend
You can register to attend the online final of FameLab NL here. It all takes place on Tuesday, June 1st, starting at 19.30h.
Further information on the event and the full list of contestants can be found here.
