Daniel Zeichner, MP for Cambridge, will this week (Friday 26 April 2019) join British Antarctic Survey (BAS) scientist, Huw Griffiths, in the laboratories to see what working on ground breaking scientific research entails. 

This unique initiative has been arranged as part of the Royal Society’s Parliamentary Pairing Scheme, which pairs 30 scientists with UK MPs and civil servants each year. The scheme has been running for almost 20 years, with this being Mr Zeichner’s forth year of participating. Mr Griffiths joined Daniel Zeichner MP in Westminster in November 2018, in order to learn more about how policy is made and how politics works.

Daniel Zeichner MP said: “I am delighted to be visiting the British Antarctic Survey and to be joining Huw as part of the Royal Society Pairing Scheme. As the MP for Cambridge, I am lucky that I get to visit world leading scientific research centres on a regular basis, however the pairing scheme makes it somewhat extra special as it allows me to spend more time to get a detailed insight into the ground breaking work that is being done in Cambridge.”

Mr Zeichner goes onto say: “This visit is very timely as this week we have been hearing about how the emperor penguin population has recently seen a decline in Antarctica. I hope to be able to hear more about how this happened and discover if policy making in the UK can prevent these kind of natural catastrophes from occurring.”

Huw Griffiths, scientist at British Antarctic Survey, said: “The scheme gives policymakers and researchers an opportunity to experience each other’s worlds. As a scientist it let me see how varied and busy an MP’s work is and the vast scope of the topics that they need information and facts on in order to make informedjudgement. It made me realise that with important issues such as climate change and biodiversity loss that politicians and scientists need to work together closer than ever before.”