Australia's Nural Cokcetin is declared runner-up of FameLab International 2017

We're thrilled to announce that Nural Cokcetin from the University of Technology Sydney has been declared joint runner-up of FameLab International 2017!

Nural captivated the crowds at the Cheltenham Science Festival in the UK last week with her buzzy three minute presentation about the prebiotic potential of honey. She explained that consuming just a tablespoon of honey a day is enough to have a positive effect on the digestive system and lead to improvements overall health and wellbeing.

Nural joined top science communicators from Hong Kong, India, Malta, Mauritius, Portugal, South Africa, Uganda and the UK in Thursday's final after success at the semi-finals earlier in the week. Medical student Nicole Phoebe Tanner from Hong Kong was announced as the other runner-up and the top prize went to geologist Tshiamo Legoale from South Africa.

Nural, who won the Australian competition in May, beat competition from thousands of applicants across 31 countries this year in the biggest FameLab International competition to date. She is the first Australian competitor to reach the position of runner-up since the competition came to this country in 2014.

"The FameLab experience has been truly amazing," Nural says. "I feel so lucky to have been able to work with such a brilliant team of science communicators and advocates of the importance of science communication. I have learnt so many new ways to approach talking about research and connecting with the public and exciting them about the work we do."

Since its debut at the Times Cheltenham Science Festival in 2005, FameLab has grown into one of the world's leading science communication competitions. It aims to discover charismatic, up-and-coming researchers who can explain complicated scientific concepts in a fun and accessible way in just three minutes.

Find out more at famelab.org.au or watch last week's FameLab International grand final on YouTube.

Features

David Hockney: Words and Pictures at the Tweed Regional Gallery

From 30 June until 17 September 2017, the Tweed Regional Gallery in Murwillumbah, NSW, will present an international exhibition of works from one of Britain's most successful artists, David Hockney.

Drawn from the British Council Collection, the exhibition presents four major suites of artists’ prints produced by Hockney from 1961 – 1977.

United by their reference to historical works of literature and art, the prints were produced during the first two decades of Hockney’s career when he established his international reputation as a Pop artist.

The exhibition is enhanced by a display of Hockney’s works on loan to Tweed Regional Gallery from the personal collection of the artist’s brother John Hockney.

The exhibition will premiere at Tweed before travelling on to the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, Katoomba, in October.

Find out more

Hisham Matar discusses refuge at the Sydney Writers' Festival

"I write these things because they connect me to the things that we all feel."

These are the words of Pulitzer Prize winning author Hisham Matar, who shared his thoughts on refuge and the notion of finding sanctuary in literature with audiences at the recent Sydney Writers' Festival.

When Matar was 19, his father was kidnapped in Cairo and taken to a prison in Libya. He never saw him again. His unflinching memoir, The Return, charts his search for clues to his father’s fate.

Matar describes his search as both an attempt to reconcile his loss and a harrowing journey into history, politics, art and the brutal legacy of corrupted power. At the Festival he explained that the book "exposed the distances I have travelled and the man I have become".

Hear Matar talk about The Return in this podcast, recorded live by the British Council at Hay Festival Cartagena de Indias earlier this year.

Find out more

GIVEAWAY: win tickets to the national cinema screenings of Lady Macbeth

Rural England, 1865. Katherine (Florence Pugh in her award-winning breakout role) is sold into a loveless marriage to a bitter man twice her age, and his cold, unforgiving family.

When she embarks on a passionate affair with a young worker, a force inside her is set free – a force so powerful that she will stop at nothing to get what she wants, unleashing a maelstrom of murder and mayhem on her husband’s country estate.

Based on the classic Russian novel, Lady Macbeth is both timeless and timely; a deliciously dark and radically original twist on a period film which IndieWire described as “thrilling…imagine Alfred Hitchcock directing Wuthering Heights”.

Thanks to our friends at Sharmill FIlms, we have ten double passes to giveaway to Lady Macbeth, valid nationally from 29 June. For your chance to win, simply send your name and postal address to enquiries@britishcouncil.org.au by Monday 19 June. Only winners will be notified.

Enter the competition

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