Fortissat Science Alliance podcast: Lana Woolford

Lana Woolford was an EPSRC/MRC OPTIMA CDT PhD student studying optical medical imaging alongside an integrated Masters in healthcare innovation and entrepreneurship at the University of Edinburgh. She took part in the Fortissat Science Alliance podcast recordings in March 2021. Each recording was also accompanied by a downloadable profile that prompted questions from the young people.

What is the Fortissat Science Alliance?

The Fortissat Science Alliance was a Wellcome Trust & Children In Need "Curiosity" project. This scheme provided informal STEM learning opportunities for young people who attended the community centre Getting Better Together Shotts (GBT Shotts) between 2019 and 2023. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, deliveries had to pivot online so the podcast was founded. These recordings were made via Zoom with warm-up STEM activities sent to every young person in advance, along with a profile page for each researcher, so that they were relaxed and able to ask excellent questions.

Link to episode on Spotify.

Depending on the broadcast date, podcast deliveries were co-sponsored by Glasgow Science Festival, EXPLORATHON 2021, or EXPLORATHON 2022/23.

For the duration of the project, it was supported jointly by Children in Need and the Wellcome Trust. In 2021, EXPLORATHON episodes were supported by the European Commission [grant agreement ID 101036101]. In 2022-23, EXPLORATHON episodes were supported by the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council [grant number EP/X020894/1]. Lana was supported by the EPSRC/MRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Optical Medical Imaging (OPTIMA).

Author contributions to content

Lana Woolford was the guest featured on this episode. Rebecca Hay was the youth worker coordinating the young people who conducted the interviews as well as co-editing and broadcasting the recordings. Iain Hamilton co-edited the episodes. Kirsty Ross was the STEM consultant for the project and uploaded completed episodes to Figshare.