Ten of the best famelabbers of Season 3 gathered in San Francisco this week as part of the Bay Area Science Festival. As the crowd cheered them on, each one took the stage for 3 minutes and explained their research to a panel of judges—from ant behavior, to the origins of life in the Universe, to using a dust made from diamonds to purify drinking water!

The winner is a climate scientist—Ilissa Ocko of the Environmental Defense Fund—who discussed different types of pollutants and their relative roles in overall climate change. Ilissa will go on to compete in the National Final in Spring, 2016 where we’ll have a special Master Class on science communication. The winner there will go on to represent the United States in the International Final at the Cheltenham Science Festival in the UK in June, 2016.