Letter from the President:

Dear EUSCEA members and friends,

As those of you who came to the EUSCEA Annual Con­fe­ren­ce in Iceland 2006 know, I have been elected as the third president of EUSCEA.

I am very honoured by this elec­tion, and I’d like to tell you a litt­le about myself and how I see the future for our organisation.

I started out as a physicist – wor­king first in industry and then spending some time tea­ching – in schools colleges and uni­versity – until I became a science communicator with the BA (British Association for the Ad­vancement of Science).

The BA is an unusual or­ga­ni­sa­tion in that it only does science com­munication – we don’t have a scientific research function at all. While I’ve been at the BA I have been involved with the young people’s programme and our famous annual Festival of Science, but now I’m a Director with responsibility for the whole of the young people’s programmes, National Science Week and our network of staff and volunteers throughout the UK.

On the personal side, I have a husband who is a management consultant and two grown up daughters and I live on a narrow­boat in London and (soon) in a little house in the Tuscan hills of Italy.

Enough about me – what of the future for EUSCEA?

I was impressed at the Annual Con­ference by the enthusiasm of all of the participants for our joint projects – the frustrations of dealing with a large and com­pli­cated project such as WONDERS seem to be completely outweighed by the perception that this is exactly the right sort of project for our orga­nisation.

Also, there was universal agree­ment that the nature of the conference, the size, length and to a large extent, the content – was just right for the people who organise imaginative science events in unusual places.

We all seem to appreciate the friendliness and the willingness to share expertise that we find when we meet.

So finally, I look forward to the next two years with great hopes for EUSCEA – we will promote ourselves on the European and world scenes and continue to work together.

I’d like to acknowledge both of my predecessors in this role, Mikkel Bohm and Joachim Lerch who have both contributed hugely to the health of the organisation and to the past and present Boards.

The whole thing would be impossible without our indefatigable General Secretary of course, our members and their organisations.

My best greetings to you,


Annette Smith

For more information, please contact me: Annette Smith.