Tulip Mazumdar to be presented with Crick Science Journalism Award

The University of Northampton is pleased to announce that the recipient of this year’s Crick Science Journalism Award is BBC Global Health correspondent, Tulip Mazumdar.

The Crick Science Journalism Award is given every year to a journalist who makes an important scientific issue clear and understandable to a general audience. Last year’s winner was Tom Clarke, Science Editor of Channel 4 News who was awarded for his work covering global warming.

Tulip is being recognised for her reporting on the Ebola outbreak in West Africa earlier this year; a story which continues to be of major concern around the world.

She said: “I was delighted to receive the news that I will be awarded this year’s Crick Science Journalism Award. It’s an honour to be selected and I am looking forward to coming to Northampton to receive the award, meet staff and students at the University and deliver a lecture.”

The award will be made at a special ceremony hosted by University of Northampton Vice Chancellor Professor Nick Petford at the Grand Hall in the Newton Building at the University’s Avenue Campus on Wednesday 21 October at 6:30pm. Tulip and last year’s winner Tom Clarke will be putting on a special workshop for BA Multimedia students during the afternoon before the event.

Professor Nick Petford commented: “Tulip is a worthy winner of this award. We are thrilled to welcome her to Northampton and look forward to the continued collaboration between science, technology, health and journalism at the University.”

The prize is named in honour of the Nobel-prize winning scientist Francis Crick who was born and raised in Northampton. As a boy he conducted his first scientific experiments here, blowing up bottles of chemicals with electrical charges in his parent’s home.

In 1962 he was awarded the Nobel Prize (along with his colleague James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins) for discovering the structure of DNA—one of the great scientific advances of the 20th Century. He went on to work on the challenge of cracking the genetic code which led ultimately to the mapping of the Human Genome in 2003.  He was also a great communicator of science, and early in his career considered becoming a science journalist.

The Francis Crick Institute in London, which opened earlier this year, has already become one of the leading biomedical research facilities in Europe. Its work is dedicated to his eclectic interdisciplinary approach.

Francis Crick’s nephew, Brian Dickens, who still lives in Northampton, will presenting the award to Tulip.