Communicating science in words that are engaging and understandable is vital at many levels. The BSCB Science Writing Prize was launched in 2009 to encourage and reward high quality writing on topics of key relevance to cell biology. Entrants have either communicated their own research projects or science stories in the literature, in a clear and concise way aimed at a non-specialist audience, or written essays that were not be limited to research per se, but tackled a bioethical or science policy issue. The BSCB Science Writing Prize aims to encourage writing skill development in young researchers rather than seasoned veterans (see rules below).
The competition entry deadline is usually in February/March and will be posted in our news section on the homepage of the website and communicated to members by email.
The deadline for entries this year (2024) is March 31st. Prize winners will be announced at the joint BSCB/Biochemical Society Cell Migration meeting in April 2024.
The winner of the 2023 competition is Aleksandra Pluta from University of Oxford
You can read the winning entry here.
General Rules: The winner receives a prize of £500 and has their winning entry published in the BSCB magazine and online (both on the BSCB website and subject to editorial acceptance on the excellent www.lablit.com website). Normally the prize is presented before one of the main plenary talks at the annual BSCB Spring Conference.
Each year shortlisted entries are judged by an external expert. In previous years we have enlisted the kind help of Tim Radford (Writer and former Science Editor at The Guardian), Viv Parry (Science Writer and Columnist), Tania Hershman (Science writer, former science journalist and writer-in-residence at Bristol University), Dr. Jenny Rohn (a cell biologist at UCL, who is also a science writer, novelist, blogger, broadcaster, the editor of LabLit.com and the founder and chair of Science is Vital) and Barbara Melville (science writer, former writer-in-residence at the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine and board member with the Association of British Science Writers).
Remember: You must be a BSCB member to enter. The full rules and how to enter can be found here.