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Background
Following the passing of one of the great developmental biologists, Lewis Wolpert, the BSDB committee has launched a new annual medal in his honour. Lewis was well known for his ability to distill our subject’s most engaging and fundamental problems into concise and well-grounded core concepts of Biology. This led to vastly important contributions to research in our field, but also to the communication of its problems to a broader audience. Through teaching, popular science writing and acting as a spokesperson for Science as a whole, Lewis inspired many of us into the deeper study of Developmental Biology. Therefore, annual ‘Wolpert medal’ will be presented to an individual who has made extraordinary contributions to the teaching and communication of Developmental Biology.
We have been incredibly fortunate to have the Scientist and Artist, Steph Nowotarski design the Lewis medal. In designing the Wolpert medal, we wanted to include various different model organisms that Lewis worked with through his career, including Hydra, chick limbs and sea urchins. At the centre is an image of Hydra as they represent the concepts of continual regeneration and renewal, and it is our best teachers and communicators that bring about the constant regeneration and renewal of our field.
To learn more of Lewis’ life and work, please read this Obituary by Jim Smith. Read more of Lewis’ impact on the BSDB here. Please also engage in an upcoming lecture series in his memory, hosted by UCL.
Wolpert Medallist 2022: Andreas Prokop (University of Manchester)
Watch the award of the 2022 Wolpert Medal to Andreas here.
Andreas has done a huge amount of highly valuable work in the teaching and advocation of developmental biology. Andreas has established the Manchester Fly Facility as a major hub for teaching, training, and outreach activities for the fly community. Their training package has been downloaded over 30,000 times and provides a complete training to get people started in using Drosophila as a powerful research model. At least one of these downloads can be attributed to our current BSDB chair, who can testify to its usefulness!
The droso4schools online resource provides an exemplar for the developmental biology community on how to provide easy access to resources that can be directly provided to schools in the communication of science. In multiple languages, it provides lesson plans that together teach curriculum-relevant fundamentals of developmental biology and genetics in fun and enticing ways whilst introducing GCSE/A-level students to the use of Drosophila. The list of almost 80 schools that the programme has collaborated with and testimony from teachers on six continents is a clear demonstration to its success and longevity.
For those looking to engage the public with fly research beyond engaging with schools is the droso4public resource, providing a huge collection of movies, animations and guidance on how to develop one’s own engagement activity. Andreas has written extensively on this topic and provides in depth and thoughtful advice and strategies on how to engage effectively with the public about our research (Patel and Prokop; 2015, 2017). Another example is the edition of a special issue in Sem Cell Dev Biol entitled “Science communication in the field of fundamental biomedical research” which had over 50,000 downloads in the first 30 months after publication. Andrea’s personal contributions to public engagement are numerous, but one event stands out in particular due to its scale and reach. Housed in the Town Hall of central Manchester, the Brain Box event had over 5400 visitors on one day involving all three Manchester Unis, the city council, NHS, museums, charities and artists. It enabled visitors to explore what we know of the mysteries of the human brain through a series of interconnected experiences, and alongside an exciting talks and performances.
During his time as Communications Officer for the BSDB, Andreas made major contributions to the ways that we as a society communicate and advocate for our science. The advocacy page of our website provides valuable pointers on how to communicate the impact and reach of developmental biology research to a non-expert audience. Importantly, this page holds a complete list of worldwide developmental biology communities and networks that help to broaden our society’s reach. Information and guidance on public engagement activities are also detailed on the outreach page and provide a valuable resource for all of us.
A major achievement for Andreas during his tenure as communications officer was to track down the BSDB archive and make it available online. This reaches back to the foundations of the society over 70 years ago. Read more about the history of the BSDB, and the tomb-cracking moment of when Andreas discovered the archive in the lab of Michael Taylor (Secretary 2008-13) in Cardiff in this blog.
Thank you, Andreas, for all your work in driving advocacy for developmental biology and providing such concrete and helpful resources in its teaching and outreach. It is an honour for the BSDB to be able to award you the second Wolpert medal, in 2022.
Previous Winners:
2021: Jamie Davies (University of Edinburgh)
Who we are looking for
Through the WOLPERT medal, the BSDB aims to acknowledge individuals that stand out in enthusing the next generation of developmental biologists or that communicate to raise awareness or teach in any other way topics of our discipline in front of any audience. Nominees are usually outstanding developmental biologists who have made a significant contribution to teaching and communication of UK developmental biology.
Nominations for the Wolpert Medal
(agreed by the BSDB committee)
DEADLINE
31st of January each Year.
PROCEDURE
Formal nominations should be made to the BSDB Secretary (secretary@bsdb.org) by the closing deadline each year but can be received at any time.
NOMINEE
Must be BSDB member.
NOMINATORS
One proposer and one seconder (both must be BSDB members).
NOMINATION DOCUMENTS
One single A4 page long statement of support in PDF format jointly signed by the proposer and seconder stating why the nominee is suitable for the medal.
VOTING
All members on the BSDB committee vote and a simple majority is sufficient to determine the winner. The Wolpert medal winner will be determined at the BSDB committee meeting in December each year.
NOMINATION ROLL-OVER
Nominations for the Wolpert medal will be considered for a total of 3 consecutive years following the date of nomination unless otherwise indicated in the nomination or if the nomination is successful. Eligibility criteria still apply when nomination is rolled over. Nominators can update the nomination if they wish to do so, but this is not a requirement.