Principal trainers

Dr Claire Ainsworth: Freelance journalist and science writer. Former Senior Reporter & News Features Editor at Nature; previously a subeditor, reporter and features editor at New Scientist. Claire won an Association of British Science Writers Award in 2004 and was print journalist of the year in the 2001 British Medical Journalism Awards. Claire holds a doctorate in developmental genetics from Oxford University. She is a regular broadcast interviewee and a former editor and presenter of The Frontier science show on Oxygen 107.9 FM.

Dr Jon Copley: Lecturer in Marine Ecology at the University of Southampton; freelance science writer for New Scientist, Nature, newspapers and magazines.  Previously a full-time reporter and news editor at New Scientist and former co-ordinator of a NERC research programme.  Jon is an experienced broadcast interviewee (from Radio 4's Today Programme to the Paul O'Grady Show), has taken part in documentaries for the BBC and Discovery Channel and frequently gives public lectures about his research in deep-sea biology, including the Charles Lyell Award Lecture at the 2007 BA Festival.