Digital showcase wins prestigious award

A project that showcases the lives of British scientists involved in some of the most remarkable scientific and engineering discoveries of the last century has won a prestigious award from the Royal Historical Society.

‘Voices of Science’ is a website that marks the culmination of a major oral history project by the British Library to gather the life stories of British scientists, with involvement from Dr Sally Horrocks from the School of History. The Royal Historical Society announced the project as the winner of the Web & Digital category in its first Public History Prizes on 27 November.

The website draws from a National Life Stories programme ‘An Oral History of British Science’, and features interviews with over 100 leading UK scientists and engineers, telling the stories of some of the most remarkable scientific and engineering discoveries of the past century as well as the personal stories of each individual.

Dr Horrocks has been senior academic consultant to the project since 2011 and helped to develop the website, taking responsibility for much of the written content as well as advising on the selection of audio and video content.

Among the interviewees featured on the website is Leicester graduate and marine geophysicist Carol Williams.

Over 1000 hours of unedited interviews, each lasting 10-15 hours, have already been made available in full on the British Library’s Sounds website as part of the Oral History of British Science project, while the ‘Voices of Science’ site offers curated access to audio and video highlights from the interviews, as well as photographs, biographies and other contextual information.