Winners of Science Writing Competition

Following the launch of the first Science Writing Competition by the University of Luxembourg in June 2021, the Jury congratulates the five winners for their excellent writing: Daniele Proverbio, Lilia Hassouna, Marie-Alix Dalle, Nicolas Stamets and Hichem Omrani.

Working in research and/or innovation in Luxembourg, the five awardees submitted excellent articles about science and research, which the Jury honoured with several prizes. Michèle Weber and Melanie Reuter from the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) as well as Nicole Paschek from the University of Luxembourg congratulated the winners in the name of the Jury.

From left to right: Nicole Paschek (Uni.lu), winners Marie-Alix Dalle (Uni.lu), Daniele Proverbio (LCSB), Nicolas Stamets (LISER), Hichem Omrani (LISER) as well as Melanie Reuter (FNR / science.lu)

The first places

Daniele Proverbio, a doctoral candidate at the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB), impressed the Jury with his article “Your face crawls with life – literally”, a text about the not so little creatures living on our faces.

Lilia Hassouna, a recent PhD graduate from the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), impressed the Jury with the article entitled “Pourra-t-on un jour escalader les murs comme Spiderman?”, in which she explains whether we will ever be able to climb walls like Spiderman.

The Jury especially likes the choice of topic, the writing style and the use of humour, which make both articles an entertaining and enjoyable reading. Both of them won the first place in the competition and received 500€ in prize money and a place in a media training, both sponsored and organised by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR).

From left to right: Melanie Reuter (FNR / science.lu), winner Lilia Hassouna and Michèle Weber (FNR / science.lu)

The second places

Marie-Alix Dalle is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Engineering (DoE) of the University of Luxembourg working in thermodynamics. Her article “Science, Research, Society. Relational Status: complex” gives insights into what science and research are. According to the Jury it is “ambitious to choose this general almost philosophical topic”.

Finally the article “Tracking Air Pollution in Luxembourg from Land & Space” explains what role busses and space satellites play in tracking air pollutants in Luxembourg. It convinced the Jury with its “catchy examples and links to our daily-lifes”. It was co-written by Hichem Omrani and Nicolas Stamets, who are both working at the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).

As both submissions received exactly the same score from the Jury, the organizers decided to award the second place, which is decorated with 250€ in prize money, twice and announce no third place instead. All articles are published on science.lu and can be read following this link or by clicking on the respective titles.

The competition

The Jury received 28 submissions from people working in science and research in Luxembourg. Most of the articles were written in English but other participants also submitted in French, German and Luxembourgish. Each text was anonymized and read by two Jurors of an interdisciplinary as well as multi-lingual Jury consisting of Michèle Weber (FNR / science.lu), Malou Fraiture (LIH), Constance Lausecker (LIST), Till Dembeck (FHSE), Pierre Picard (FDEF) and Nicole Paschek (FSTM).

The competition was organised by the Doctoral Education in Science Communication (DESCOM) project of the University of Luxembourg in collaboration with science.lu and supported by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR). It is an opportunity for all scientists and researchers to try out their science communication skills by writing an article about research that is understandable to anyone.