Each participant has only 3 minutes to present the chosen topic. In their speech they may use any props, as long as they can carry them on the stage and operate them without any help from others. The rules of the competition forbid the assistance of multimedia aids.
Last year, the first Polish edition, organised by British Council - Poland and the Copernicus Science Centre with the support of the Foundation for Polish Science, turned out to be a huge success. Over 80 participants from all over Poland entered the competition, and its winner – Monika Koperska, post-graduate student of the Faculty of Chemistry of the Jagiellonian University, came second in the World Final in Great Britain and was awarded the Audience Prize. In her 3-minute-long speech, Monika argued that – apart from information engraved on stones – paper is the most time-resistant data storage device. Other data carriers, such as CD’s, USB drives or magnetic memory devices are not that lasting.
Marcin Stolarski Ph.D. with the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw won the second edition of FameLab in Poland. In his final speech, he explained how we should protect transistors in electronic devices and how scientists do it in laboratories. The second place was taken by Magdalena Richter, Ph.D. student at the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, who explained how neutrophiles protect our body against bacteria. The third place winner – Maciej Jasiński, Ph.D. student of Inter-Faculty Individual Studies in Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the University of Warsaw, who carries out his research at the Centre of New Technologies Ochota University of Warsaw, explained that molecules modified to resemble their mirror image may be a source of new medicine and vaccines.
Marcin Stolarski Ph.D. represented Poland at the international final of the competition held in Cheltenham in Great Britain. He qualified to the final group of top ten winners of the national finals. Famelab International 2013 was won by Fergus McAuliffe from Ireland.
