Luís Oliveira from Lund University wins the highest honor in the Scientists’ Grand Prix

This year’s Scientist Grand Prix was won by Luís Oliveira from Lund University. In Sweden’s largest science communication competition for researchers, finalists are judged by the audience and an expert jury based on the simplicity, engagement and clarity of their presentation.

It was an emotional rollercoaster and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to share my research with a wider audience.”

Luís Oliveira, cancer researcher

Communicating complex research in an accessible and exciting way is a challenge for most scientists. The Scientist Grand Prix exceeds this challenge: participants have only four minutes to present their research.

Luís Oliveira, a PhD student at the Stem Cell Center at Lund University, described his research as a battle between good and evil, where he works to “hack” cancer cells and transform them into something benign. After the competition, he was bombarded with questions from high school students gathered in the audience.

“Talking to the students afterwards was an absolute highlight. As a researcher, I am not used to this type of interest. It gave me a chance to show that research can be fun and hopefully inspire others to become researchers.”

The competition took place on Tuesday, November 26, at the Philadelphia Convention Center in Stockholm. The expert jury included comedian and actor Ahmed Berhan; Expressen science commentator Amina Manzoor; and Nina Wormbs, professor of the history of technology at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology. The host of the event was comedian Josefin Johansson.

“I really liked the way you used metaphors. As researchers, it is often helpful to translate one concept into another. It helps with understanding, but it also helps us see where things are different from what we imagined, which leads to new questions,” said jury member Nina Wormbs, commenting on the winning presentation.

Second place went to Erik Andersson from the Karolinska Institute, whose research concerns methods of dealing with intrusive thoughts. Third place went to Daniel Mensah from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences with a presentation comparing forest research with floorball, an indoor hockey sport popular in Sweden.

Over 500 people took part in the final in person, and an additional 100 viewers watched the live broadcast.