UK, Ireland and Canada celebrate MSCA Prize success

The winners of this year’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Prize have been announced in Trento.

Awards were given in three categories, namely ‘Nurturing Research Talent’, ‘Communicating Science’ and ‘Promising Research Talent’. In the first category, the University of Cambridge’s Dr Sarah Bohndiek was recognised as an ‘inspiring female researcher’ and for being a great role model for girls interested in pursuing a scientific career. Commenting on her award, Professor 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.”

In the ‘Communicating Science’ category, Dr Shane Bergin was selected after leading a prominent poster competition about physics on Dublin’s DART urban rail network. Entitled ‘DARTofPhysics’, Bergin was recognised for his outreach activities that involved 50 scientists and 300 students. Speaking about his award, Dr Claire Belcher, a jury member in her capacity as MSCA winner of the prize in 2012 and now ERC Principal Investigator, said: “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.”

From Canada, Dr Maanasa Raghavan won in the final category in recognition of achieving “excellent results” during her Innovative Training Networks doctoral training, demonstrating the ability to become a research leader following her genome sequencing of a 24,000-year-old modern human.

The winners were announced during the ‘Empowering the Next Generation of Researchers’ conference in Trento.