The judging panel for the third Gulbenkian Prize for Museum of the Year was announced on 14 January. Chaired by Sir Richard Sykes, eminent academic and scientist and Rector of Imperial College London, the panel represents a wide range of heritage, arts and media interest. It comprises:

Neil Chalmers is a biologist, trained at Oxford and Cambridge Universities with a research career in the field of behavioural ecology, based on studies of primates, principally in East Africa and Brazil.

He joined the Open University in Britain in 1970 and for the next 18 years he continued his research career and at the same time became heavily involved in the problem of making science accessible to lay-people using a wide variety of media and education techniques. He became Director of The Natural History Museum in November 1988.

He led a major redevelopment of the Museum’s exhibitions; he emphasised that all Museum visitors should receive a high standard of care, and, through the Darwin Centre, he brought the Museum’s science into the public arena in a new way.

Sir Neil retired from the Museum in August 2004 and moved to Oxford University to become Warden of Wadham College.

Michael Day started his museum career in Norwich in the 1970s before moving in 1983 to the Ironbridge Gorge Museum as Curator of Social History. In 1987, he was appointed Director of the Jersey Heritage Trust, where he was responsible for four museums, two castles and the island’s national archive. Achievements in Jersey included winning the Museum of the Year Award twice. In 2003, he became Chief Executive of Historic Royal Palaces, the charitable trust which includes the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace and Kensington Palace.

He was project monitor for the Heritage Lottery Fund on the new National Maritime Museum Cornwall, and has been an occasional consultant over the last decade on other museum projects and to cultural organisations on strategic management issues.

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.

Victoria Hislop read English at St Hilda’s College Oxford and is a freelance writer and journalist. She writes regularly on education for the Daily Telegraph and has a column in BBC Parenting magazine. She also writes travel features for the Sunday Telegraph, House & Garden and Woman & Home. Her first novel, which is set in Crete, is to be published in Spring 2005 by Hodder Headline.

She is an enthusiastic supporter of museums and galleries which she visits regularly with her two children. “Whether I visit a museum with my family or alone,” she says, “I have no doubt that it will be educational, but what I really hope for, as a bonus, is that it will lift my spirits too.”

Elizabeth Mackenzie was, for many years, a Consultant Cytopathologist in Bristol, Head of the Department of Cytology, Manager of the Cervical Cytology Screening Programme for Avon, and Director of the South West Regional Cytology Training Centre.

Her interest in museums and art galleries has been lifelong and she was Chairman of the Bristol Magpies (Friends of Bristol City Museums & Art Gallery) for ten years. She was elected Chairman of the British Association of Friends of Museums (BAFM) in 1998, having served as Vice-Chairman and Regional Representative for the South West. She is a trustee and member of the Executive Committee of the SS Great Britain, Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s famous ship currently undergoing restoration in Bristol docks.

Sir Richard Sykes is Rector of Imperial College London. Sir Richard was awarded a PhD in Microbial Biochemistry from Bristol University and a DSc from the University of London.

Sir Richard was Chairman & Chief Executive successively of Glaxo Wellcome plc and GlaxoSmithKline plc from 1997 to 2002. He received his knighthood in the 1994 New Year Honours list for services to the pharmaceutical industry.

He sits on a number of government and scientific committees and is a Trustee of the Natural History Museum in London and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. A former President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Sir Richard was appointed Chairman of the Bioscience Leadership Council in November 2003.