News Story

FameLab, the world's longest running science communication competition, bought together 10 of the best science communicator's from across the UK to vie for the title of FameLab UK Champion in front of a live audience.

This year, we not only had our first ever all female FameLab UK final, but we also marked a major milestone, celebrating 20 years of FameLab.

Image gallery

On Friday 6 June 2025, early-career STEM researchers entertained a live audience with three-minute talks, armed only with their wits and a few simple props. The result was an engaging and enlightening event, encouraging curiosity and expanding public understanding of scientific topics and research.

To add the exclusivity of the night, the Gloucestershire Deaf Association selected the FameLab UK Final to be BSL interpreted, and we also revealed some world exclusive news about FameLab.

The fun-filled night, hosted by local comedian Shirley Halse, was filled with ten brilliant bite-sized science talks, representing ten different regions of the UK.

The fantastic finalists wowed the judges and audience, giving them a taste of science research. The talks covered a range of topics such as Exoplanets, Quantum, Chronic Pain, Heartbreak, Slime and Gambling Additions and so much more.

Here's a bit more about the finalists...

Holly Davies

Representing the South West and working in the field of Physics and Astronomy, Holly presented a talk titled Extraordinary Exoplanet Expeditions.

Spatika Jayaram

Representing the East of England working in the field of Neuroscience, Spatika presented a talk titled Time Travel with Your Brain.

Caitlin Lewis

Representing the East Midlands working in the field of Chemistry and Physics, Caitlin presented a talk titled The 0 to 1 of Quantum Computing.

Lindsey Sinclair

Representing Gloucestershire & West Midlands working in the field of Medicine, Health and Disease and Neuroscience, Lindsey presented a talk titled Of Mood and Memory.

Erin McEvoy

Representing Northern Ireland working in the field of Marketing and Public Health, Erin presented a talk titled Not Quite Home: Irish Women, Gambling Addictions and the Long Way Back.

Tiffany Baptiste

Representing London working in the field of Engineering, Tiffany presented a talk titled From Heartbreak to Digital Healing.

Elisha Doi

Representing the North East working in the field of Chronic Pain, Elisha presented a talk titled Drowning in Pain, Reaching for Relief.

Julia Shumway

Representing the South East working in the field of Epidemiology and Statistics, Julia presented a talk titled Music is Medicine: How music therapy can heal our minds and bodies.

Erin Pallott

Representing the North West working in the field of Biology, Erin presented a talk titled Snot Just Slime!

Eugénia Delacou

Representing the Scotland working in the field of Soft Matter Physics, Eugénia presented a talk titled Early Bird Gets the Worm, Early Worm Gets the Organ.

The esteemed judges included Quantum Physicist and FameLab Alumni Nic Harrigan, Neuroscientist and Science Communicator Dr Rachel Honeyghan-William and Mark the Science Guy, Mark Langtry.

While the judges deliberated, Mark Lewney, Guitar Physicist and the very first FameLab Winner from 2005 entertained the audience with a musical performance.

Before the judges announced the winners, Cheltenham Festivals shared exclusive news with the audience and the FameLab world. This year, the International Final will be hosted live at CERN Science Gateway, Switzerland and streamed live on the FameLab YouTube Channel on 25 November 2025.

After an exciting announcement careful deliberation, the judges decided that this year’s joint runners up were Holly Davies with her talk Extraordinary Exoplanet Expeditions and Tiffany Baptiste with his talk From Heartbreak to Digital Healing.

Spatika Jayaram was crowned the FameLab UK 2025 winner with her talk Time Travel with Your Brain.

Over a 160 audience members voted and choose Tiffany Baptiste as this years' Audience Winner.

Spatika will now move on to represent the UK at the International Final, taking place at CERN Science Gateway in Switzerland. She will compete against eight other countries: Australia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Poland, South Africa and Switzerland and as they vie to be the World’s Best Science Communicator 2025.

All finalists received a certificate and the Winner, Runners up and Audience Winner received a trophy. The winner also received £500 and a trip to the ninth Silesian Science Festival in Katowice, Poland, courtesy of FameLab International partner, the University of Silesia in Poland.

The FameLab UK Final 2025 would not be possible without the kind support of National Grid Electricity Distribution, who supported the final, and Sorven Foundation Trust, who support FameLab and many of our year-round programmes.

Cheltenham Festivals is delighted to work in partnership with a number of Hub organisations around the country, who run FameLab in each of their regions.