Congratulations to Neil Barnes

I’m so pleased to be writing this post about an award for Neil Barnes.

Neil is a senior technician at the University of Nottingham’s School of Chemistry.

People like Neil are the unsung heroes of science - the men and women who keep the machines, labs and experiments running.

But Neil has another string to his bow - he has long been the heartbeat (and cult hero) of our Periodic Videos series on YouTube.

In fact Neil was the first person to appear in the first shot of the first proper episode in 2008.

Preparing to blow up a balloon of Hydrogen in episode 1

Well - today Neil was named the inaugural winner of The Royal Society’s Hauksbee Award.

This new (and long overdue) prize is awarded to outstanding support staff “behind the scenes”.

UNIVERSITY PRESS RELEASE AND STATEMENTS ABOUT THE AWARD

We’re all so proud that Neil is the first winner!

The prize is named in honour of Francis Hauksbee, Isaac Newton's laboratory assistant at the Royal Society.

In a lovely coincidence, both Hauksbee and Neil specialise in vacuum systems.

In fact, I’ve made an Objectivity video about one of Hauksbee’s pumps.

Neil’s citation states: “The inaugural Royal Society Hauksbee award 2022 is awarded to Mr Neil Barnes for his outstanding skills as a research technician which have supported generations of physical chemists, and his continued inspiring of future scientists by popularising chemistry online, attracting thousands of fans worldwide.”

“Thousands of fans” is probably an understatement.

I’ve spent countless days in the lab with Neil… filming as he sets up, performs, and then cleans up experiments.

Many times I’ve asked: “Can we do that just more time?”

He never says no (but sometimes goes out for a calming cigarette first).

Neil is a sucker for fire and a big explosion, but also takes pleasure from the more subtle experiments and colour changes.

Many of my best science memories are just the two of us in the lab, being flabbergasted by an unexpected reaction or result.

Our viewers have long made it clear they love Neil - but this award writes him into the honour roll of science!

No-one deserves it more.

Here’s a Neil tribute edited several years ago - but it’s still fun to watch.

And here are some more photos.