Ryan Durnall is the latest winner, after receiving the most votes from students! He wins £500 to spend on more science engagement activities.

Here’s what he had to say about his victory:

Thank you all so much for kindly voting me your winner for this term.

Getting online for a chat is always the highlight of my day. The questions are sometimes wildly random, but it’s always a good time. One of my favourite questions from this term was ‘How much cheese would we need to completely cover a crumpet’. I had to dig deep and remember surface area formulas, but was politely reminded by the students that crumpets have little holes in them, which would affect the surface area. This is when I realised I may not have been the smartest person in the room! 

Winning £500 was never in my mind as a possibility, but I’d like to use it to launch a small project with my girlfriend (who is a doctor), where we visit schools and teach life-saving skills such as CPR, while also promoting careers and education in medicine.

I am honoured to be able to have the opportunity to directly contribute towards further STEM outreach and activities.

Thank you to all the students for being curious. There is no such thing as a silly question (even though some of you like to try REALLY hard to think of one!) and it’s great to see so many of you confidently trying to get answers to things you’re interested in. My number one piece of advice is to always stay curious. Even if the answer isn’t what you had hoped for, at least you will then have the knowledge, and as they say – knowledge is power!

Huge thanks to all of the moderators, those who work behind the scenes, and also the other wonderful and interesting scientists for making it all possible. This really is a simple, fast and effective way to engage – and it’s a load of fun, too.

Cheers everyone and I’ll see you in some more chats soon. 

Ryan Durnall