Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science Endowment

The four student prizes supported by this Endowment recognise the centrality of science communication to both science and democracy and encourage students who demonstrate their mastery of science communication knowledge and skills.

Prizes are awarded at all undergraduate year levels. There are prizes for each of: first year marks, a third or fourth year research project, an outreach-oriented assignment completed at any undergraduate year level, and for the best Science Communication Major across a whole degree program.

Students who win the Sue Stocklmayer Prize for Science Communication Major and the First Year Science Communication Prize (both funded by this Endowment) will be high achievers across an entire year level (First Year Science Communication) or an entire degree (Major in Science Communication).

The other two prizes differ from the norm, in that the winners may simply be very good at one aspect of science communication: research (Science Communication Undergraduate Research Prize) or science outreach (the Chris Bryant and Mike Gore Prize for Science Outreach). The Endowment recognises that few people are excellent at everything, but many people can be excellent at one thing with the right support. These two prizes reward excellence in science communication practice irrespective of a student's overall marks, making the prizes accessible to a wider range of students.

Science communication enables science to have its greatest impact in the social and political realms, yet sometimes it plays second fiddle to the science and technology communicated. Students who receive the prizes supported by this Endowment will benefit from institutional recognition of their work and their discipline. This will encourage them to continue to strive for excellence in science communication.