We had a wonderful night at the THE Awards, a very exciting, glitzy event at the Grovesnor Hotel, with a fantastic number of shortlisted entrants in the 17 categories. So glitzy that the voiceover for the awards ceremony was provided by the man from X-Factor. The welcome speeches were made by the editor of the THE, and Greg Clark Minister for Science, Universities and Cities, whose predecessor David Willetts was also in attendance, as we were told, several times. Table 15 for the Ordered Universe, with two colleagues from UCL: and we waited for the awards ceremony: Giles, Tom, Richard, Brian, Cecilia, Hannah, Rachael and Stephen.
Jack Dee, our compere for the evening, got the room warmed up (more or less!), and we were into the awards. It was all very exciting (although, just as an observation, it was noticeable how few humanities projects were shortlisted). We were not successful in the Research Project of the Year category, that went to Nottingham, but it was a pleasure to be there, and to enjoy the occasion. To run with what Michael Books said at the end of his piece for the Guardian Science section, Grosseteste may not have won, but it was a wonderful achievement to have taken him to such
an event, and we were in very interesting company. And, after all that, we completely forgot to take an Ordered Universe team photo; again!
Wonderful just to have been there – well done to you all!