Six countries from around the world gathered on the virtual stage for the live FameLab International Final 2022, to compete for the title of world’s best science communicator.

Each researcher had three minutes to communicate to our esteemed panel of judges with the winning speaker best demonstrating FameLab’s three C’s - Content, Clarity and Charisma. 

We were treated to so many incredible talks from speakers around the world, covering everything from gene therapy, to greenhouse gas emissions and atoms. We were joined by Eliška Jandová from the Czech Republic, Christian Scharun from Germany, Valentina Vavassori from Italy, Nehemiah Latolla from South Africa, Natascha Hedrich from Switzerland and Nuti Hutasingh from Thailand.

Three incredible judges, Adrian Fenton from the British Council; Emer Maguire, science communicator and previous FameLab UK Champion; and Katrien Kolenberg, Professor of Science Communication & Outreach, KU Leuven Belgium had the difficult decision of crowning the FameLab International champion.

Nehemiah Latolla was announced as this year's FameLab International Champion after his outstanding talk, Indigenous knowledges systems, a treasure trove for drug discovery which discussed how phytochemistry has led to a world of opportunity for new, cost effective, less toxic drug discoveries.

Nehemiah will receive a trophy, certificate and a Cheltenham Science Festival experience inclusive of UK travel, accommodation, tickets to events and networking opportunities with international scientists, engineers and researchers. 

Our first runner up was Eliška Jandová for her fascinating talk about cancer treatment and our second runner up was Nuti Hutasingh for his thought provoking talk about food science and technology. And if that wasn't enough, Nuti also proved popular with our audience, taking home the Audience Winner prize which was voted for by our live audience watching from their screens around the world.

This year's final was captured on our YouTube live steam, and if you weren't able to join us on the day, you can watch all six talks from the final in the video below:

Head of Programming at Cheltenham Science Festival Dr Marieke Navin said: "It was fantastic to have six countries from around the world in this year's FameLab International Final. We were joined by three brilliant judges and all the participants presented outstanding, inspiring talks."

FameLab is a science communication competition and training programme, where early-career researchers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and maths entertain a global online audience with three-minute presentations. The result is an engaging and enlightening way to encourage curiosity and expand the public understanding of scientific topics and research. 

Thank you to our international partners Charles University in Prague, Bielefeld Marketing in Germany; Psiquadro in Italy, South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (SAASTA) - a business unit of the National Research Foundation and Jive Media Africa in South Africa, the Life Science Zurich, BioScience Network Lausanne and Graduate Center University of Basel and The National Science Museum of Thailand.