Glasgow Science Festival

Deborah McNeill set up Glasgow Science Festival in 2007 and has been the Director of Glasgow Science Festival ever since, which has successfully engaged with over 860K people in person between 2007 and 2025. Debbie has led Glasgow Science Festival to win several awards including Best Scottish Festival at the Scottish Hospitality Awards in 2018,2019 and 2025. 

'I started doing public engagement at a time when it was a very new career. In my second year of University, I took a 10-credit module called science communication, which I had never even heard of, which turned into me working in a part time role with an organisation based at the University of Glasgow. Working in this role, I realised that Glasgow didn’t actually have a science festival. Setting up Glasgow Science Festival changed my career path, and I was very lucky to start at a time where there were lots of ways to develop into that space.'

'One of the best parts of running the science festival is the amazing people I have been able to work with. Whether its internally through the science festival team, through our volunteers, through the networks that we run, or through the thousands of research staff and students who have given up their time to be part of the festival. One of the loveliest memories for me was meeting a woman who was studying neuroscience at the University of Glasgow, and it turned out she had been part of the science festival in year two as a young girl. We went through our photographs and found a picture of her at one of our festival activity days in a lab coat at about 10 years old.'

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First published: 20 January 2026