V Edition of the IGFAE’s Science Communication Award

The judges at the fifth edition of the Science Communication Competition organised by the Galician Institute of High Energy Physics (IGFAE),a member of the CIGUS Network of scientific excellence promoted by the Galician Autonomous Government (Xunta de Galicia),has recently announced the winners from the 33 entries received.

In the informative article category, the award went to Caetano Eirea Orro for his essay entitled Entendendo o Nobel de física 2022, in which he provides a clear insight into the importance of the work of Nobel Prize in Physics winners John Clauser, Alain Aspect and Anton Zeilinger. He displayed a clear vocation for helping readers who are uninitiated in the workings of quantum entanglement and its applications to everyday life.

In the scientific photography category, the jury unanimously decided that the photograph taken by Laura Mercadé Morales, entitled Una rayuela particular (A particular hopscotch), deserved first prize for its original representation of the Standard Model of particle physics, praising its careful composition and symbolism.

In the informative videos category, the jury awarded first prize to Retos tecnolóxicos do CERN (‘The technological challenges facing CERN – the European Council for Nuclear Research’), produced by María Caseiro Arias and Juan Pablo García Amboage. They particularly valued the quality of the audio-visual material of the video, which is self-produced, featuring original and attractive image resources and a clear highly educational narration. The images and the discourse complement each other perfectly. The fact that it focuses on a very specific topic makes it accessible to the audience and transmits the concepts in an entertaining and effective manner. The jury also gave a special mention to O descubrimento do Sagitario A* e o M87 (‘The discovery of Sagittarius A* and M87’) by Nicolás Lozano López, a complete, ambitious video addressing a pertinent contemporary issue, highlighting its excellent structure and voice-over.

In the original projects category, newly created for this edition, the prize went to Andrey Sadofyev for ‘Elementary bones’, a board game that allows players to understand reaction and detection mechanisms in particle physics. The judges valued the game’s capacity to communicate concepts of physics through play in a simple and original way that is suitable for a wide range of ages.

Entries in the competition, which was open to people from any country, had to be related to physics, in particular areas of study at the IGFAE, a centre that is part of the CIGUS Network. The judges took into account the rigour and quality of the concepts presented, the originality and interest of the topics and the ability to communicate the content to a non-expert audience. The four winners each received a cash prize of 400 euros.

This activity is an initiative of the IGFAE outreach group, part of the V IGFAE Science Week and co-financed by the ERDF Galicia 2014-2020 operative programme.