In January Colin Baker, director of studies at Bedford School and  Exhibition chemistry author, became the 10th scientist to be awarded the Shaw Medal. Created in 1988 by the University of Nottingham to honour the famous British demonstration lecturer Colonel Brian D. Shaw, the award aims to encourage and maintain the tradition of the scientific demonstration lecture. 

Baker is only the second teacher outside HE to win the award. He has developed a reputation for spectacular demonstrations that enthuse, stimulate and capture the imaginations of young scientists. Baker has been enthralling audiences with his demonstration lecture Thunder and lightning, which includes several classic chemistry demonstrations such as explosive foam, rockets, smoke bombs and unusual applications of chemiluminescence. The details of many of these he has disseminated to other chemistry teachers through his 23 Exhibition chemistry  articles published in Education in Chemistry over the past four years. 

For more information on Shaw the man and his explosives lectures see Brian Shaw and his ‘explosive’ lecture, Harold Booth, Educ. Chem., 2001, 38(6), 158.