Who's Who on The Judging Panel
Brian May, legendary guitarist and Doctor of Astronomy
Dr Brian May
With a musical career spanning four decades, Queen founding member Brian May is a world-renowned guitarist, songwriter, producer and performer. His influence on a new generation of musicians is a tribute to his unique style and musicianship, most memorably displayed when he performed his own arrangement of God Save the Queen on Buckingham Palace roof to open the 2002 Golden Jubilee celebrations.
He retains his keen interest in astronomy and regularly contributes to Sir Patrick Moore's Sky at Night with whom he has recently co-authored the astro-physics book 'Bang! The Complete History of the Universe' published by Carlton Books and has recently completed his Astrophysics PhD Thesis at Imperial College London, which he began in 1970.
Julia Peyton-Jones, Director of the Serpentine Gallery
Julia Peyton-Jones
Julia studied painting at the Royal College of Art, but decided not to dedicate her career to the practice of painting, but rather its curation. She curated exhibitions at the Hayward Gallery before taking up the illustrious role of Director at the Serpentine Gallery.
Within a few years she secured the patronage of Diana, Princess of Wales, which supported significant restoration of the gallery. Since then, visitors have increased three-fold to 750 000 per year. Julia has been awarded honorary fellowship of the Royal College of Art (RCA) as well as the Royal College of British Architects (RIBA).
Baroness Susan Greenfield, Professor of Physiology, Head of the Royal Institution
Baroness Susan Greenfield
Susan was the first member of her family to go to university – her mother was a chorus girl, her father an electrician – and she grew up with this idea that everything was a laugh. So it is all the more impressive that she is now Professor of Physiology at Oxford and the Director of the Royal Institution of Great Britain.
Susan talks about the brain the way other people talk about fine art or football. It is a thing of endless beauty and fascination. She was the first woman to give the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, and has written a book about the brain aimed at non-scientific readers. The Human Brain: A Guided Tour (1997) is a best seller.
Sir Patrick Moore, Astronomer, Author and Television presenter
Sir Patrick Moore
At the age of nine, Patrick picked up his mother's copy of 'The Story of the Solar System' and lifelong passion was ignited. Since then, he has concentrated upon studies of the moon.In 1959, the Russians used his charts to correlate the first Lunik 3 pictures of the far side of the Moon and he was involved in the lunar mapping before the NASA Apollo missions.
Patrick has written over 60 books on astronomy. Since April 1957, he has presented all bar one pf the monthly Sky at Night programes. This last fact has earned him a place in the 'Guinness Book of Records' as the longest serving television presenter. Six months before the launch of Sputnik 1 and long before the 'space race', the sky was graced by the presence of a bright comet, Arend-Roland, at the time of the first ever broadcast.
Professor Lord Robert Winston, Science & Society Chair of Imperial College, London
Professor Robert Winston
Robert believes that public communication of science is vital. An expert in human fertility, he got his medical degree in the sixties, then took a sabbatical to become a theatre director. On his return to medicine, he set up the IVF (in vitro fertilisation) unit at the Hammersmith Hospital, which is noted for its success in improving both IVF and ways to diagnose birth defects in embryos.
He has presented many BBC TV programmes including BAFTA award-winner The Human Body. Robert is a member of the House of Lords and Chairman of the Royal College of Music Council. The appointment of a scientist to chair the RCM Council is in line with the wishes of Queen Victoria's husband Prince Albert. His vision, dubbed Albertopolis, was to create an area devoted to the arts and sciences.
Alison Pidoux (Cell Biologist and Artist)
Alison Pidoux
At school, Alison resisted the notion that one has to choose between science and art. Cell biologist by day, artist by night, she works at Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, Edinburgh University where she investigates how cells build and divide their chromosomes. Her artwork – figure drawing – has a strong sense of gesture and movement and has been exhibited in San Francisco and Edinburgh. She often takes a visual approach in science, making movies of chromosomes moving inside yeast cells.
Alison believes that children’s interest in science should be encouraged, so that they grow up having an understanding and connection with science and can participate in debate. She enjoys communicating science to children, through talks, demonstrations and experiments, and devised a ‘Build-a-Cell’ beetle drive game. She believes that both science and art can help us understand the world.
Ryan Gander, Visual artist
Ryan Gander
Ryan currently lives and works as a practising artist in London. After several years as artist in residence in Amsterdam, he completed his first solo exhibition at the International 3 Gallery in Manchester. He is currently touring another solo show ‘Heralded as the new black’, which opened at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham in January 2008.
In 2005, Ryan was short-listed for the Becks Futures prize at the ICA in London and has since been awarded the Paul Hamlyn Award for Visual Arts and the AMRO prize of the Netherlands. He is represented by a range of galleries in London, Amsterdam and New York.