Dance video shows ‘unsociable’ particles becoming ‘joyful’ pairs
Scientific research can be a lonely pursuit. And for Pramodh Senarath Yapa, a physicist at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, even the subject of his research is lonely: singleton electrons wandering through superconducting material. “Superconductivity relies on lone electrons pairing up when cooled below a certain temperature,” Yapa says. “Once I began to think of electrons as unsociable people who suddenly become joyful once paired up, imagining them as dancers was a no-brainer!”
Six weeks of choreography and songwriting later, Yapa scooped the 2018 “Dance Your Ph.D.” contest. The judges–a panel of world-renowned artists and scientists–chose Yapa’s swinging electron dance from 50 submissions based on both artistic and scientific merits. He takes home $1000 and immortal geek fame.
“I remember hearing about Dance Your Ph.D. many years ago and being amazed at all the entries,” Yapa says. “This is definitely a longtime dream come true.” His research, meanwhile, has evolved from superconductivity–which he pursued at the University of Victoria in Canada, where he completed a master’s degree–to the physics of superfluids, the focus of his Ph.D. research at the University of Alberta.
This is the 11th year of Dance Your Ph.D. hosted by Science and AAAS. The contest challenges scientists around the world to explain their research through the most jargon-free medium available: interpretive dance. John Bohannon, inventor of the contest, is a former contributing correspondent for Science and still runs the contest on its behalf. He is now director of science at Primer, an artificial intelligence company.
The 12 finalists were announced on 4 February in each of the four broad categories: biology, chemistry, physics, and social science. Yapa won both the physics category and the overall prize. An online audience favorite will be determined by 14 February, and some of the winning videos will be shown on 17 February at the annual AAAS meeting in Washington, D.C.
These are the four winners selected by the judging panel:
Overall winner and Physics category
Pramodh Senarath Yapa
Non-Local Electrodynamics of Superconducting Wires: Implications for Flux Noise and Inductance
University of Victoria, Canada
current affiliation: University of Alberta, Canada
contact: [email protected]
Winner, Biology category
Olivia Gosseries
Measuring consciousness after severe brain injury using brain stimulation
University of Liege, Belgium
contact: [email protected]
Winner, Chemistry category
Shari Finner
Percolation Theory – Conducting Plastics
Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
current affiliation: Technical University of Dortmund, Germany
contact: [email protected]
Winner, Social Science category
Roni Zohar
Movements as a Door for Learning Physics Concepts – Integrating Embodied Pedagogy in Teaching
Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
contact: [email protected]
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The 2018 Dance Your Ph.D. judges:
Renee Jaworski, Pilobolus
Emily Kent, Pilobolus
Matt Kent, Pilobolus
Carl Flink, Black Label Movement
Alexa Meade, Alexa Meade Art
Suzanne Walsh, STEAM education
Weidong Yang, Kinetech Arts
Allan Adams, WHOI Future Ocean Lab
Rebecca Saxe, MIT SaxeLab
The Semantic Scholar team at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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