Bayer Sponsors Science Writing Competition

London. Leili Farzenah, a 19-year-old student at Imperial College, London, and Philip Broadwith, a 25-year old doctoral student at Cambridge University, are the winners of this year's Daily Telegraph Science Writer Awards - sponsored for the first time this year by Bayer UK/Ireland. The results were announced recently in a full page article in the Daily Telegraph, a leading national UK newspaper. The prestigious competition, now in its 19th year, aims to find the nation's brightest new science writing talent.

Contestants competed in one of two age groups. Farzenah won in the 16-19 age group. Her article explained how agrobacterium, an opportunistic bacterium which can invade plants by transferring its DNA into their genetic makeup, is being used to develop genetically modified crops that can increase rice production or provide so-called "edible vaccines." Broadwith won in the 20-28 age group. Broadwith's topic was metathesis, a chemical reaction used in the manufacture of plastics. Part of their prize will be a research trip to Bayer's headquarters and their further writing eventually appearing in the Daily Telegraph. Steve Painter, Head of Corporate Communications for Bayer UK/Ireland, said of Bayer's decision to sponsor the awards: "By promoting the best science communicators of tomorrow, these awards support our mission, Bayer: Science For A Better Life." Painter joined a distinguished lineup of judges, including well known broadcasters Sir David Attenborough and Adam Hart-Davies, Royal Society President Lord Martin Rees, and award-winning author Bill Bryson. They faced the difficult task of narrowing the 350 entries down to just two winners and runners up for the competition, which has seen several previous entrants and winners go on to influential jobs in scientific PR and journalism.