We are delighted to announce that the 2015 ICG/SEPnet Postgraduate Student Outreach Award has been awarded to Claire Le Cras for her innovative public engagement work using dance to explain astrophysical concepts.

Claire has developed a novel way to explain the life cycle of stars through dance, first developing a routine for her entry to Famelab 2014 (in which she was the South East region runner-up) and then expanding this into a workshop for dance students as part of the SEPnet Public Engagement Course. In November 2014 this work was nationally-recognised when she won the Institute of Physics Early Career Physics Communicator Award.

In addition to developing her own public engagement activities, Claire has regularly contributed to the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation’s outreach and public engagement programme. Since joining the ICG in October 2012, she has participated in a range of activities, including Stargazing Live public events, primary school visits, and discussion workshops about women in STEM. She is now in the final year of her PhD studies, and currently writing up her thesis under the supervision of Professor Claudia Maraston and Dr Daniel Thomas.