Winners of Science Populariser 2017 contest organised by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education and the Polish Press Agency announced! The laureates of the 13th edition of this prestigious competition have been presented today during a ceremony at the Copernicus Science Centre in Warsaw.

Science Populariser is the oldest and most prestigious contest in Poland that honours researchers, media communicators, institutions and social activists who share the passion for translating scientific results to the society in a both entertaining and educating way.

Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research PAS w Olsztyn has been announced the laureate in the category of research institutions. The Contest Chapter recognized the over 10-year popular science mission of Institute’s scientists, the variety of activities and quality of communicated knowledge. Institute can boast off the organization of the most important science celebration event in Europe – Researchers’ Night. Hundreds of experiments, workshops and meetings with scientists have already been explored by almost 50 000 science passionates. Family Picnic of the Polish Academy of Sciences „Science is Art!” is another flagship event of the Institute dedicated to the society at large. Researchers take science out of the laboratories and bring it to the city centre to interact with both science addicts and science reluctants, and give them the unique opportunity to try hands at mesmerizing science shows.

Popular science resume of the Institute displays also mobile workshops at reginal schools, winter courses for pupils, patronage over Polish Academy of Kids, and participation in Olsztyn Science and Art Days, as well as the Science Picnic of Polish Radio and Copernicus Science Centre. All these constitute a valuable possibility for Institute’s researchers to promote the understandings enabled by science and to improve the public recognition of researchers’ work.

The Contest Chapter of „Science Populariser” features prominent personalities in the area of research communication: Prof. Michał Kleiber (chairman) – one of the initiators of the competition, a longtime president of the Polish Academy of Sciences, former Minister of Science and Information Technology; Prof. Magdalena Fikus – promoter of science, co-organizer of the Warsaw Science Festival; Robert Firmhofer – director of the Copernicus Science Centre, ed. Krzysztof Michalski – science journalist of Polish Radio, Dr. Robert Mysłajek from the University of Warsaw (promoter of natural sciences), as well as representatives of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education and PAP – Science and in Poland.

Previous winners of the competition include: philosopher of nature Fr. Prof. Michał Heller, neuroscientist Prof. Jerzy Vetulani, author of popular science television programs Ed. Wiktor Niedzicki, archaeologist Prof. Andrzej Kokowski, as well as institutions such as the Copernicus Science Centre, Polish Academy of Kids and the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology.