These awards recognise public engagement by students, staff, academics and departments from across UEA and the Norwich Research Park.
The Norwich Cathedral inaugural Science Festival in March 2016 saw a team from UEA’s School of Environmental Sciences deliver a suite of volcanology-related activities. The festival’s drop-in family day attracted around 10,000 visitors to the Cathedral site. As part of the team, Dr Jessica Johnson developed a novel activity giving visitors a chance to engage with an expensive, and normally inaccessible, seismometer. Jessica’s presentation was pitched perfectly to the audience, generating curiosity and enthusiasm. When a fellow expert had to pull out from a Bin Bang display, Jessica, undaunted, carried on with a demonstration creating a controlled explosion using liquid nitrogen in front of huge crowds of children and adults - with only the support of students and non-specialist colleagues. Despite being inundated with curious visitors for almost six hours without respite, Jessica displayed exceptional professionalism, ensuring every interaction was a positive and meaningful one and that attendees left with a genuine insight into her area of research and its impact outside academia.