Science competition judging panel

An expert panel of judges assess the entries for the Cambridge Upper Secondary Science Competition each year.

The panel is led by Dr Helen Eccles, who has spent her career in the education and assessment field, much of it at Cambridge.

Our judges are excited to see how this year’s students approach their investigations and to see what the next generation of Cambridge International scientists produce.

View the judging panel below.

Dr Helen Eccles

Dr Helen Eccles started her career in education teaching chemistry and physics and writing A Level Chemistry examination papers. She joined Cambridge’s UK exam board, OCR and was responsible for setting standards for curriculum and assessments. She then joined Cambridge International as a Director, working with international governments on national education systems, and with UK regulator Ofqual, on national syllabus and assessment design and implementation.

Dr Eccles has maintained her interest in science throughout her career, building on postdoctoral work in cancer research and electron spin spectroscopy. She has a particular interest in practical science and its assessment and is the author of several chemistry textbooks and a reference work on the Periodic Table.

Dr Elaine Wilson

Dr Elaine Wilson was an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education until September 2022, and is now an Emeritus Fellow of Homerton College at the University of Cambridge.

Elaine was a secondary school chemistry teacher in Bath and Cambridge and awarded a Salters' Medal for chemistry teaching. She has also received two career awards for teaching in Higher Education - the University of Cambridge Pilkington Teaching Prize, in recognition of excellence in teaching at the University of Cambridge and a National Teaching Fellowship in recognition of excellence in teacher education leadership.

Dr Claire Malone

Dr Claire Malone achieved a PhD in High Energy Physics from the University of Cambridge in 2022.

Throughout her education and career, Claire has had to devise bespoke techniques of studying due to cerebral palsy, which means she cannot use a pen or lab equipment directly. This has made her passionate about broadening access to scientific education and about communicating her enthusiasm for science to a wide audience. She advocates for the inclusion of groups that are typically under-represented in science subjects. Claire is STEM Lead at the Lightyear Foundation, which works towards breaking down the barriers to disabled children taking part in STEM.

Professor Chris Huang

Professor Chris Huang is Professor of Cell Physiology at Cambridge, and Fellow and Director of Medical Studies at Murray Edwards College.

He went to school in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, before attending university in the UK. He achieved higher degrees at both Oxford (Doctor of Medicine) and Cambridge (Doctor of Science) in medicine and physiology.

Chris’s research has contributed to understanding of the transduction and propagation of biological signalling events at the cellular and systems levels. He has received a range of awards for his work in physiological research and has been editor of multiple journals.

Lucia Garcia Lecuona

Lucia Garcia Lecuona studied Cambridge IGCSEs at her school in Mexico. She went on to achieve a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Studies at the University of Bath, before completing a Masters in Cancer Biology at Imperial College London.

Lucia is now a scientist on the Research & Development graduate programme at AstraZeneca, where she will work in several different teams. She is currently working on identifying targets for cancer drugs.