Question: Why would you rather use the money on children than on new chemicals or equipment for your work?

Lori-An Etherington answered on 14 Jun 2010:

There are a couple of reasons. Firstly we were told by the organisers of I’m a Scientist that the prize money should be used for science communication, so I thought this would be a good way of hopefully making some people interested in science. Also I work as a postdoctoral researcher and I am employed on a grant. A grant is financial assistance which the drug company pays to the university for someone to do the research, this covers my wage and supplies which I need for experimenting (eg chemicals and equipment) so I would not need to use the prize money for these things. The grant does not cover presenting my work at meetings or conferences but there are many other places to apply for money to cover the cost of this. I thought it would be fun to talk to school children about my work and also about the brain in general and the prize money would help me to make some hands on activities for this purpose, it would be hard to get money for this type of thing from other sources.