FOLLOWING a Millennium Award to produce a series of bookmarks: the Tim Techno Science Quest Bookmarks, Southampton University's Dr Robert Eason has been made a Millennium fellow.

The project was funded through the Royal Society and British Association Millennium Awards scheme, financed by the Millennium Commission, to encourage understanding of science, engineering and technology in the community.

Dr Eason and his colleague, illustrator Chris Winn, produced ten colourful bookmarks, each featuring Chris Winn's well-known cartoon character Tim Techno and his dog Splig.

So far 100,000 bookmarks have been distributed free to libraries in Hampshire and Norfolk, as well as branches of Waterstones Booksellers in both counties, and the Ecotech Centre at Swaffham, Norfolk. The bookmarks will be handed out every few weeks through to the millennium and are proving popular with young readers aiming to collect the entire set of ten.

Dr Eason devised questions which are targeted at young people between 15 and 17. Each bookmark has three questions and covers a different science topic.

Dr Eason is a reader in opto-electronics at Southampton University and is an expert on lasers and optics and has long experience of promoting science to schools and colleges, BBC Radio and The Science Museum.

He says he has a continuing ambition to bring scientific ideas and techniques to life and to raise the profile of science within the general public.

Mr Winn lives in Norfolk and regularly provides illustrations and cartoons for newspapers, magazines, advertising and design.

Following the success of their collaboration on the bookmarks, the pair say they plan to produce a series of amusing and colourful books using Tim Techno and Spli to champion the understanding of science among young people.

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