Dave Ansell

I have been communicating science since the last millenium. Getting involved with a science week event in Cambridge in 1999: in the pub the 2002 event a couple of us decided that it was a waste to only run for one day a year so we founded the CHaOS science roadshow. This is a student run group that now organises a 7 week roadshow, taking science all over the country.

I did a physics degree, and then graduate research. It rapidly became clear that I preferred communicating science and making things to doing experiments. I slowly did more and more outreach, and less and less research (to the benifit of CHaOS).

In 2005 I got a job with the IOP's Lab in a Lorry programme, managing a travelling science lab going around the UK, Ireland and South Africa. It was a very interesting year, and I learnt a lot, not least about exhibit design, as I rebuilt almost all the kit involved.

Also in 2005 I started appearing on the radio with The Naked Scientists, developing and presenting a Kitchen Science segment every week and appearing regularly as a co-presenter on the show. After a year or so I was employed to build the website (along with the kitchen science and presenting). The website developed into a large integrated database system managing the publication of podcasts and allowing the team to produce a range of types and formats of audio, video and web content without needing to enter any details twice. I wrote and presented about 200 kitchen science segments, and cowrote a book of experiments to do at home.

In 2011 Chris Lennard approached CHaOS about building a hands-on science museum in Cambridge. I was obviously very keen to get involved and started building exhibits for what became the Cambridge Science Centre. Over the years I have designed and built over 100 exhibits from scratch, many of which are innovative or new.

In 2017 we formed Sciansell ltd we build demos and exhibits and accept commisions for interesting projects.