By Dr. Geraldine Walsh, Knowledge Broker, Canadian Blood Services
Originally posted on the Canadian Blood Services Research, Education, and Discovery (R.E.D.) blog and republished with permission and minor edits. Read original article about Lay Science Writing Competition.
The Centre for Innovation was thrilled to once again partner with the Centre for Blood Research (CBR) at the University of British Columbia to deliver our annual Lay Science Writing Competition. And with this year’s theme of “Challenges 2020”, it’s no surprise that the competition received many interesting, heartfelt and inspiring entries. A huge thank you to everyone who entered. Our panel of esteemed judges, which included science and communication experts from Canadian Blood Services and the Centre for Blood Research, faced their own challenge to pick the best entries based on the competition guidelines. No easy task, but it’s my pleasure to announce the results:
| Joint first prize | Melina Messing CBR/SBME graduate student, McNagny Lab “Lost in lab: deciphering blood immune cells to fight COVID-19” |
Polina Petlitsyna CBR/SBME summer student alum “Developing cell biology lessons for seniors in the age of COVID” |
| Runner up | Sarah Longo McMaster University/MCTR undergraduate student “2020: The Year No One Expected – Challenges Researchers Face during a Global Pandemic” |
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Congratulations to our 2020-2021 winners! And watch this space as each of the awarded entries will be published on the CBR and R.E.D. blog over the next few weeks.
Winners of previous Lay Science Writing Competitions
The winning entry and runners up in last year’s Lay Science Writing Competition were also published on R.E.D. blog. You can find them here:
2019-2020 winner:
2018-2019 winners:
- Competition winner: Optimizing Cord Blood Donor Recruitment
- Writing competition runner up: Phlebotomy to improve surgical outcomes and donor blood economy – a redemption story
- Iron deficiency in pregnancy – a matter of public health
- Creating platelets 2.0: stronger, faster, and with twice the life-saving power
The 2020-2021 Canadian Blood Services Lay Science Writing Competition was organized by the Canadian Blood Services’ Centre for Innovation with welcome support from the Centre for Blood Research at the University of British Columbia.