The 2024 No-Bell Prize Competition: A Resounding Success in Science Communication
The 2024 No-Bell Prize competition final took place on Tuesday 21 August in the Ian Potter Auditorium (Kenneth Myer Building) as the culmination of a Faculty-wide initiative commencing in April when the call for applications was first circulated.
Pictured: 2024 No-Bell Prize Finalists
The initiative was designed to support graduate research students to practice communicating their research clearly and succinctly to a non-expert audience, without the use of jargon, acronyms or technical terms that are not properly explained.
The ten finalists only had one minute to deliver an engaging and concise ‘elevator pitch’ about their research. The one-minute presentations were then followed by a four-minute question and answer section, enabling interesting interchanges between the presenters, audience and host.
This was the second year in which the Melbourne Medical School (MMS) coordinated the initiative, with support from the Melbourne Dental School (MDS). A total of 57 applications were received across the Faculty, including 20 from the MMS. All applicants had the opportunity to participate in two different face-to-face communication workshops in June – one focused on science communication and one on storytelling. Following these workshops, participants competed in one of five separate heats taking place throughout July, which were hosted by the Florey Institute, the MMS, the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, the Melbourne School of Health Sciences (MSHS), and the MDS. As ranked by a panel of judges, the top two participants from each heat progressed to the final event. Those progressing to the final also had the chance to receive one-on-one coaching from a professional science communication coach to sharpen their pitches.
The final competition event on Tuesday 21 August was well-attended, with students, supervisors and professional staff, along with family and friends of those presenting, learning about a diverse range of graduate research topics during an informative and entertaining afternoon. Professor Christobel Saunders (Research Director, MMS) hosted the event, with Associate Professor Catherine Quinlan (Academic Lead – Graduate Research, MMS) acting as MC. In addition to the finalists, Professor Justine Mintern (Associate Dean – Graduate Research) and Associate Professor Tilman Ruff (dual Nobel Prize winner with groups involved in the prevention of nuclear war and abolition of nuclear weapons) also presented on the importance of clear communication.
Pictured: 2024 No-Bell Prize Winners
The quality of all ten student presentations was outstanding and the judging panel had to make some difficult decisions. The winner of the No-Bell Prize for 2024 was Georgina Whish-Wilson (Department of Physiotherapy, MSHS), with Tony Huang (Department of Surgery, MMS) and Claire Laurie (Department of Physiotherapy, MSHS) named as runners-up. The audience also had the chance to vote on their favourite presenter and Nadia Kaunein (MDS) was declared the winner of the People’s Choice Award. Building upon the foundations laid in 2023 when the MMS and MDS first implemented the initiative for students in those two Schools, the competition’s expansion in 2024 to encompass the whole Faculty was a great success and gave many more students an opportunity to practice their communication, presentation and storytelling skills. Given its success, there are plans to run the No-Bell Prize again, so keep an eye out for further developments next year.