LifeLab can only succeed with the commitment of our wonderfully enthusiastic volunteers. Without them, more than 8,000 students to date would not have been inspired by the ‘Meet the Scientist’ programme they experience here.

Meet the Scientist has been a fundamental part of LifeLab since the beginning. As teachers we recognised that it’s really hard to bring science to life and make it relevant to students whilst teaching the curriculum. This is where the enthusiasm from our scientists and researchers makes such a difference.

Over 300 researchers have been trained and take part in this sessions on a regular basis. They freely give up their time out of their day to come and chat to the teenagers about their lives, inspirations and work.

Working in LifeLab, with the students and teachers, we can see the impact this has directly on them. We don’t know how many will go onto forge a career in science, but what we do know is 59 per cent of students agree it had changed their mind about scientists and what scientists do and 52 per cent agree that following the session they were considering further study or a career in science.

The impact is further illustrated by their comments:

“My school promotes female scientists, but only actually meeting young women scientists made me realise it could be a possibility for me”

“Meet the scientist was awesome – it really inspired the kids and was the first contact most of them have ever had with real science”

Volunteers week is the perfect time to say thank you on behalf of, not just us here at LifeLab, but from the future scientists who have had their eyes opened to the vast array of possibilities open to them.