Earlier this month, Cambridge PhD student Spatika Jayaram (pictured below) was crowned the winner of the FameLab 2025 UK final at this year’s Cheltenham Science Festival.
After winning a nail-biting East of England final, which was held as part of the Cambridge Festival in April 2025, Spatika went on to represent the East of England in the UK final with her presentation on Time Travel with Your Brain. She will now go on to represent the UK in the International Final taking place live at CERN Science Gateway in Switzerland to mark the 20 year anniversary of the competition.
“I was so surprised I won!”, said Spatika. “The other communicators were fantastic and we travelled through so many topics from planets to parasites and more!”.
Spatika took part in FameLab because she enjoyed talking about science to non-scientists and bringing some meaning to the complex work taking place in the labs. “I wanted a chance to bring humour into the science, because most of the times science is presented in professional environments, it’s all very serious”, added Spatika.
“I would recommend FameLab for anyone who’s even a tiny bit interested in knowing what happens to science when it’s let out in the wild!”
Claudia Antolini, Public Engagement Manager at the University of Cambridge said, “We are delighted for Spatika to represent the UK at the International FameLab final. Both at the East of England regional competition and the UK final Spatika gave outstanding performances, scientifically accurate but also extremely engaging with wise-cracking humour. We wish her the best of luck and we look forward to cheering her on for the International Final.”
Dervila Glynn, Cambridge Neuroscience Strategic Manager and Head Judge for East of England Regional Finals said “We are so delighted that Spatika will represent Cambridge at the International FameLab Finals – seeing Spatika develop as an expert science communicator over the last few years has been an hour and I am sure all of our neuroscience colleagues join me in wishing her every success in Switzerland. FameLab is a wonderful and fun opportunity to delve into the world of science communication”
The FameLab final will be streamed live from CERN on YouTube.
Spatika Jayaram is a PhD student and Gates Cambridge Scholar in the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience and Magdalene College. In her research, she looks at social and emotional behaviours emerging across development, and how regions within the prefrontal cortex contribute to their regulation. Her supervisor is Professor Angela Roberts.
FameLab was created by Cheltenham Festivals in 2005 and is the largest science communication competition and training programme in the world. Participants have just three minutes to convey a scientific concept of their choice to an audience and expert panel of judges with no presentations and limited props.
Posted on 20/06/2025
