Battling Scientists

The University's Botanical Gardens hosted the event. The competition was divided into three sections – undergraduates, Master's students, and postgraduates, and competitors were evaluated by some science heavyweights in the form of Alexei Vodovozov, a medical science journalist and blogger, Alexei Paevsky, the editor-in-chief of the NeuronVoster science website, and Dr Maria Sitnikova, the director of the University's Cognitive Neuroscience and Neurotechnology Centre. In the end Maria Rusanova won the student competition. The Master's event final saw Evgeny Titov pit his plastic to gasoline processing technology against Vladislav Senchenkov's fungicidal silver ions. After some tough questioning, Mr Senchenkov won out. In the postgraduate tussle, Yaroslava Kulchenko put her chemistry research up against Diana Martseva's pharmaceutical technology. Both have multiple papers published and have won prizes for their work in the past, so the panel gave them a hard time, asking difficult questions. This time they gave the win to Ms Martseva.

When it came time to choose the overall winner, they put it to the audience. Because this is science, they used a sound level meter to decide the winner of the 'Golden Brain' trophy. The biggest cheer was for Mr Senchenkov. All participants walked away with a prize for their efforts, and Mr Senchenkov summed up their feelings about the event, saying,
“I am pleased with my performance. This format allows you to tell people simply and clearly about scientific achievements and about science in general. We were able to show the festival guests that any person can engage in science, and most importantly, that scientific activity is a fascinating process.”