Introduction | Armand Marie Leroi | Mark Lewney
Scientists don’t generally set out to become celebrities. It’s usually a passion for science combined with charisma and personality that endears them to the public and ensure they are recognised wherever they go. From Johnny Ball, through Patrick Moore to Sir David Attenborough, such broadcasters have enlightened generations of viewers to the wonders of science.
But what of the ‘new faces’ – the science communicators of the present and future? How do they go about crossing over from the world of science to the media? What skills and experience do they need and how realistic are the chances of giving up the day job?
Armand Marie Leroi is an award winning author and presenter of Mutants. Armand has become a well known face of science but how did he make the transition from page to screen? Mark Lewney, last years FameLab winner hasn’t made a three part primetime series (yet!) but he has been very busy since carrying of his prize at last summers Cheltenham Science Festival.
“Humans are just worms writ large” (Armand Marie Leroi)
Armand Marie Leroi teaches evolutionary and developmental biology at Imperial College, London. His postdoctoral work took place at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, in Scott Emmons's laboratory. Here he began to work on growth in the nematode worm, Caenorhabditis elegans, and its relatives.
His book, Mutants: On the Form, Varieties and Errors of Human Body won him the Guardian First Book Award in 2004. Mutants recounts fascinating stories of the people whose extraordinary bodies have revealed our genetic grammar, from the Irish giant Charles Byrne to the hairy family who were kept at the Burmese royal court for four generations, and the white South African housewife whose skin inexplicably turned black. He presented the TV series of the book on Channel 4.
“I am not fit to polish Patrick Moore’s monocle” (Mark Lewney)
Dr. Mark Lewney, 32 from Liverpool, did physics at Edinburgh University and a PhD in acoustics at Cardiff University. He works at the UK Patent Office dealing with new inventions in telecommunications, and pursues anthropological research in his spare time by playing guitar in Welsh pubs. He won FameLab 2005 by wowing the judges with the physics of rock guitar. Part of Mark’s prize was to write and present 3 Minute Wonder, a short documentary for Channel 4 to be broadcast later this year.
