Beacon of the Year

The Beacon of the Year award celebrates inspirational individuals who have been contributing to our field and to the Ecsite network. The award recognises innovative visionaries who are empowering and motivating their peers to reach a common goal: emboldening citizens to engage with science.

The 2022 Beacon of the Year Award was presented to Anna Omedes, former Director of the Museum of Natural Science in Barcelona, for her personal embodiment of the network’s values.

Responsible and Responsive

The ‘Responsible and Responsive’ Award began in 2021 and aims to recognise institutions not only for their resilience, but for original, creative ideas that have had positive impact for communities at a time of crisis.

The winner of this award in 2022 is The International Centre for Life in Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom for their project E=MC2 online. This was a virtual project that, with help from local families, engaged with 13,000 autistic people with science demonstrations and live chats during the UK pandemic lockdowns.

‘‘We would like to congratulate the winners and all of the nominees for this year’s awards’’ said Bruno Maquart, President of Ecsite. ‘‘We have always been a supportive and innovative community, but the pandemic has pushed us further and it’s great to see what has been achieved in difficult circumstances.’’