Morgan Jackson, a PhD candidate in the School of Environmental Sciences, has won a top prize in the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) “Science, Action!” video contest.
Jackson’s entry features his NSERC-funded research on flies (Diptera), conducted through the University of Guelph’s Insect Collection.
In the video, Jackson explains that flies make up a larger proportion of Canadian biodiversity than any other group of organisms, and researchers estimate only about half of the fly species in Canada have been discovered.
His entry was selected as one of 15 finalists based on the number of views his video received on YouTube, and the number of shares it received on Twitter and Facebook. His video was then selected as one of three English-language winners by a panel of judges. The win comes with a $3,000 cash prize.
“Sixty seconds isn’t a lot of time, so distilling my message down and finding the right combination of informative and engaging content was a fun challenge for me,” says Jackson.