General – Page 5 – Harry Lownds

Thursday 11^th April marked another red-letter day for the scholarship fund established in Harry’s memory when Matt’s colleagues at the Foreign Office in London, British Embassy in Moscow and British Consulate General in Ekaterinburg got together to organise a cake sale to raise money for the fund.

Busy bakers old and young, including Harry’s family and colleagues’ children, contributed a veritable feast ranging from Victoria sponge cake to home-made Pains au Chocolat, banana bread and old-fashioned ginger cake to lemon bars and brownies. A special ‘science’ cake was raffled in London. And colleagues in the Russia Network prepared local delicacies including Medovik honey cakes and Torte Napoleon.

Continue reading “Harry’s Great British Diplomatic Bake Off”

I can’t point to one moment when I became interested in science. I started simply by enjoying the spectacle of it: from the Science Museum bubble show, or my teacher in second grade getting out a box of pig hearts for us to see how blood was pumped around the body, to the fizzing and explosions of lower school chemistry club. As I began my secondary education, I moved into appreciating the real science behind the spectacle and began my love affair with the life sciences.

Above all I became enthused by the sense of potential it offered, particularly when we studied more recent developments such as genetics and the workings of biotechnology. The newspapers seem to report new developments constantly, such as the possibility of organ transplants without donors thanks to a combination of iPSCs and bioprinting; or using genome editing to eliminate HIV.

Continue reading “Harry’s personal statement”