The judging panel for the second Gulbenkian Prize for Museum of the Year is announced today, 12 December 2003. Chaired by Loyd Grossman OBE - broadcaster, writer and Chairman of the Campaign for Museums - the panel represents a wide range of artistic, scientific and academic interests. It comprises: Rosie Millard, arts correspondent for the BBC and freelance journalist; Peter Jenkinson OBE, National Director of Creative Partnerships; Joan Bakewell CBE, broadcaster and writer; Mark Lythgoe, neurophysiologist and lecturer; Sokari Douglas Camp, sculptor; Mark Bolland, PR professional and former Deputy Private Secretary to HRH the Prince of Wales.

Loyd Grossman was educated at Boston University and the London School of Economics, where he is a member of the Council and the Court of Governors. He has devised, presented, written or produced a number of television programmes including Through the Keyhole, Masterchef, Loyd on Location and The History of British Sculpture.

Loyd has had a lifelong interest in museums and the historic environment. He was a Commissioner of the Museums and Galleries Commission (1996-2000) and a Commissioner of English Heritage (1997-2003). He is Chairman of the Blue Plaques Panel, a board member of Resource: the Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries, Chairman of the 24 Hour Museum, Chairman of the Campaign for Museums and Chairman of the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association. He is Vice Chair of the Cultural Consortium for England's Northwest, a Trustee of Saint Deiniol's Library and a Trustee and Chairman Designate of National Museums Liverpool.

Rosie Millard is the arts correspondent for the BBC. She also writes an arts column in the New Statesman and the cult column A Landlady Writes in The Sunday Times.

She is currently a student at the Courtauld Institute where she is studying for a Diploma in History of Art. She lives in London with her husband and three children.

Peter Jenkinson is the National Director of Creative Partnerships. He was previously the Director of Museums and Galleries in Walsall, West Midlands and with his team opened the internationally acclaimed The New Art Gallery Walsall. Before that he worked in museums in London, Norwich and Weybridge. He was one of the judges for last year’s inaugural Gulbenkian Prize.

Jenkinson is regularly invited to lecture in schools, colleges and universities and to participate in seminars and conferences in the UK and around the world. He has been on the panel of several art awards, including The Royal Academy Charles Wollaston Award, The National Portrait Gallery BP Portrait Award and the Vivien Duffield Foundation Artworks Award. He was Chair of the Visual Arts and Galleries Association (VAGA), from 1999 to 2001 and was in 1996 elected Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts. He is an Honorary Doctor of the University of Central England and the University of Wolverhampton.

Dr Mark Lythgoe is a neurophysiologist and lecturer in Radiology and Physics at the Institute of Child Health (UCL) and Great Ormond Street Hospital. Mark currently runs the RCS Unit of Biophysics experimental MRI Facility, researching the effects of hypothermia on brain metabolism and cell death, and developing novel gene therapies for the treatment of stroke.

Mark has also been involved in several science–art collaborations, most notably directing the film Mapping Perception with Andrew Kotting which premiered in 2002. He is currently working towards a production with the London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT) for 2004 and giving a series of lectures on The Science and Art of Perception at various IMAX science museums.

Sokari Douglas Camp was born in Buguma, Nigeria, and studied art at the California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland USA, the Central School of Art and Design and the Royal College of Art in London. She has worked with the Smithsonian and the British Museum, and her work is in their permanent collections. She also shows in galleries in Europe, Africa, America and Japan.

Sokari was part of a movement to make museums 'lively' in the eighties. Her work has largely been about masquerade performances. Collected objects, some of which are kinetic, are put into context by working in steel and using film. Her awards include the Amy Sadur Friedlander Prize, the Saatchi & Saatchi Award and the Princess of Wales Scholarship and Henry Moore Bursary.