SYNT workshop at the UZH Science Lab

In January, Owen hosted a SYNT workshop at the UZH Science Lab — the university’s hands-on venue for connecting science with schools, teachers, and the public through interactive workshops and exhibits.

SYNT, the Swiss Young Naturalists’ Tournament (“where tomorrow’s scientists meet”), is a competitive science event in which teams of students research an open-ended scientific problem and then present and defend their findings against other teams. The workshop is a full-day introduction to the tournament, aimed both at registered competitors and at students still deciding whether to take part. It walks participants through developing a research strategy for a tournament problem, the tournament’s structure, presentation and discussion protocols, and includes a live “Science Fight” demonstration of the competitive format itself, plus mentoring from experienced coaches.

The Science Lab’s own format is built around doing rather than just listening: participants work through activities and experiments pitched at their class level, across subjects from biology and chemistry to physics, sustainability, and digitalisation. Hosting a SYNT workshop there is a chance to bring the group’s own thinking — about ecological forecasting, food webs, and how ecosystems respond to change — to an audience well outside the usual academic seminar room.

Alongside hosting the workshop, Owen also judged as part of SYNT 2026.