TV Work

Helen's first brief TV appearance was as captain of a three woman team competing in ITV's Scrapheap Challenge -- they built a welly-flinging device (but didn't win).

While at University Helen was active in promoting her science to other departments and the public, and started producing short videos explaining the experiments. Finding everyone reluctant to appear on camera, she began doing the talking herself and found she had a natural flair for the job. These videos turned out so well she was asked to make more and these were published on Cambridge University and other websites. These videos and her lectures at the Science Fair brought her to the attention of the media and she was invited to be guest scientist on BBC's Blue Peter in 2005.

The next three and a half years were spent in USA and she continued to produce professional videos for the universities she worked at, and was a guest scientist on USA TV, explaining her research on bubbles and usually finishing with a demonstration involving a large bottle of soda water that soaked everyone within range.

 

Back in the UK the BBC invited her for tests and selection procedures to find new presenters, and Helen was delighted to be chosen to co-present (with Kate Humble) a series of three science programmes about the weather for BBC2. These were broadcast in March 2012.

Sample: Joy of Snow.         

Helen’s '23 degrees' blog from the BBC2 programme 'Orbit: Earth’s Extraordinary Journey

The BBC is concerned that there are not enough women in science on TV, and Helen is one of the new presenters being recruited to improve the situation. Read Guardian article by the BBC's commissioning editor for science and natural history.