And the winner of the 2014 MSCA prize is….

Congratulations to the three winners of the 2014 MSCA prizes: Maanasa Raghavan, Shane Bergin and Sarah Bohndiek!

Trento, Italy – 18 November 2014

Communicating science in a fun and attractive way, mentoring the next generation, and publishing in high impact journals are three important accomplishments in the life of a researcher. Today, the European Commission recognised three brilliant MSCA researchers for their achievements in such activities. The prizes were awarded in three categories:

- The "Promising Research Talent" prize was awarded to Dr Maanasa Raghavan, a researcher in paleogenomics. This prize distinguishes researchers who have obtained excellent results during their ITN doctoral training, and have demonstrated the potential to become a research leader. Maanasa gained recognition in her field when she deciphered the genome sequence of a 24,000-year-old modern human and was published in the prestigious scientific journals Nature and Science. Upon choosing the winner, Prof Maya Schuldiner, Jury member, European Research Council (ERC) grantee and former MSCA alumnus said: "Maanasa is clearly a leader in her field and well poised to become a fantastic independent scientist in the near future".

- The prize for "Communicating Science" was given to Dr Shane Bergin, who led an eye-catching poster campaign about physics called "DARTofPhysics" in the Dublin metro.  This mass outreach effort involved some 50 scientists and 300 students, and caught commuters' attention by intriguing and inviting them to visit a dedicated website to learn fun and educational physics facts. Shane is also a regular contributor to a science outreach radio programme. "Shane's innovative idea, placing posters raising awareness among train commuters of the importance of physics in everyday life, is simple but elegant. It seems to make so much sense to fill one's commuter time looking up the answer on their advertised website" declared Dr Claire Belcher, a jury member in her capacity as MSCA winner of the prize in 2012 and now ERC Principal Investigator.

- The third winner, Dr Sarah Bohndiek, a group leader at the University of Cambridge and within a Cancer Research UK institute, received the "Nurturing Research Talent" prize. Throughout her career, Sarah has been engaged in communicating her passion for science to the younger generation from high school pupils to PhD candidates. As an inspiring female researcher, she is also a role model for girls who are considering an exciting scientific career. Commenting on the winner, Prof Wolfgang Schürer, Director of Lindau Nobel Prize committee and jury member of the prize said: “Sarah personifies qualities that are crucial: excellence in research and dedication in mentoring and outreach. Congratulations!”

The three winners received a certificate from the European Commission during the "Empowering the Next Generation of Researchers" conference of the Italian EU Presidency.

Meet the winners!

Promising Research Talent
Dr Maanasa Raghavan: Reviving our ancestors' DNA

Maanasa (29 years old) is Canadian, a molecular biologist interested in human genomics. In 2011 she obtained her PhD at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, funded by an MSCA grant, and has since been a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for GeoGenetics there. She is primarily working on resolving aspects of the peopling of the Americas by making using of genome-scale data from ancient and modern humans from the continents. Despite her young age, Maanasa has had many citations in leading scientific publications as first author (Nature, Science). Indeed, she is combining genomics with archaeology, one of many examples in which the MSCA funds interdisciplinary researchers.

Contact

Uffe Wilken, Communications officer
Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark
University of Copenhagen
Tel: +45 31772016
Email: UGWilken@snm.ku.dk

Communicating Science
Dr Shane Bergin: When physics meets the daily commute to work

Shane (34 years old) is a former MSCA fellow who is now a physics lecturer at Trinity College Dublin. Shane's research interests include nano-science, science education, and science communication. In this respect, he is very innovative by bringing science to places where people spend most of their time: public transportation. Shane created "DARTofPhysics" to zap the curiosity of Dublin metro commuters with physics through interactive advertisements. In 2015 a sister campaign to DARTofPhysics will be running in the London Underground ("Underground Physics"). Shane is currently recording a radio show for RTE on the impact of science and scientists in Ireland. He is the chairman of the Science Gallery's Leonardo group (the Gallery's think-tank).

Contact 

Mary Colclough, Communications & Education Manager
Trinity College
Tel: +353-1-896-3022
Email: mary.colclough@tcd.ie 

Nurturing Research Talent
Dr Sarah Bohndiek: Instilling the passion for science in the new generation 

Sarah (30 years old) is a Group Leader jointly appointed in the Department of Physics and the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute at the University of Cambridge. She completed her PhD in Radiation Physics at UCL in 2008 and then worked in both the UK and USA as a postdoctoral fellow, first in Cambridge then at Stanford. Sarah now leads an international research team whose focus is the development of new techniques for imaging oxygen and oxidative stress in cancer. She currently holds an MSCA Career Integration Grant that enabled her to return to Europe from her previous position at Stanford University School of Medicine, USA.

She dedicates part of her time to being Training Coordinator for cancer imaging specialists. This includes developing projects for school pupils on her own initiative. Sarah does all this in addition to her regular lecturing at University, which is imaginative and popular. Sarah is strongly active in promoting science as a career and is involved in "Stemmettes" as well as participating in CRUK women of influence campaign.