THROUGHOUT this year we will be celebrating the people who help make Warrington special.

Inspired by the Humans of New York blog, we will be providing names to faces you may see everyday and telling their stories.

NAME: Carsten P. Welsch

AGE: 40

LIVES: Chapelford

OCCUPATION: Professor at University of Liverpool and accelerator physics group leader

"I had a fascination with the unknown at a very young age and wanted to find the answers to those questions.

"You can't start early enough encouraging children to think scientifically and the questions I get when I have visited a primary school are brilliant as children are so curious from such a young age.

"I recently organised an event on lasers and accelerators for in the Liverpool Convention Centre with speakers including professor Brain Cox to raise more public awareness of the importance of particle accelerators including more tangible applications like cancer therapies.

"It was a big success with 150 school children from across the north west and 100 researchers from across Europe.

"All our accelerator research is done at Daresbury labs and there's very little awareness this kind of research is taking place on Warrington town centre's doorstep."

Would you like to be featured as a Human of Warrington or know someone you would like to nominate?

If so, e-mail hannah.bargery @nqnw.co.uk with details or send them to The Academy, 138 Bridge Street, Warrington, WA1 2RU.