UEA Engagement Award

  • Johnson, Jess (Recipient)

Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)

Description

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.
Degree of recognitionLocal