Schools Writing Competition Hilary Term 2019

We are pleased to announce the winners of the Hilary Term 2019 Oxford Scientist national school science writing competition! Through our science writing competitions, we hope to encourage school students to think about science outside of the classroom, and give them the opportunity to explore their own scientific interests in a creative way. This term, students in Years 10-13 were asked to write a short article about ‘one way that science impacts your everyday life’.

We received 212 entries written to an incredibly high standard. The articles were judged by our panel of experts, who selected the winning article to be published in the HT19 issue of The Oxford Scientist and win four tickets to the IMAX 3D experience at the London Science Museum.

The winning article, as selected by our panel of judges was:

The Science of a Chilli by Arushika Aggarwal, Year 12, The Tiffin Girls’ School, Surrey.

Runners-up were:


Our Judges

  • Dr Jonathan Green is a lecturer and researcher in the University of Oxford’s Zoology Department. He is interested in the social lives of animals, specifically what they know about each other and how this information is used to make decisions during social interactions. To answer these questions, he studies a range of animals, including birds, fish and flies.

  • Dr Elisa Granato is a Microbiologist in the Oxford Departments of Zoology and Biochemistry. She is excited about finding out how tiny microorganisms live their lives, and spends most of her day staring into the microscope to watch glow-in-the-dark bacteria do their thing. At the moment, she is trying to work out how gut bacteria use toxic chemicals to kill off their competitors. She is also passionate about science communication, and you can get in touch with her on Twitter (@Prokaryota).

  • Jacqueline Gill is a DPhil student in Evolutionary Microbiology. She was a co-founder of The Oxford Scientist magazine, and established the first national Oxford Scientist school science writing competition, and has managed all aspects of the competition since its launch.


If you have any questions about the competition, please email [email protected].

If your school, sixth form or college would like to subscribe to The Oxford Scientist for just £15 per year, please contact [email protected].