Famous milestones through the years

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FamoUs mIlesTones ThroUGh The Years

The first ever winner of the Young Scientist Exhibition was John monahan from Newbridge College, Co. Kildare (1965). John has recently retired as President of his own biotech company, Avigen Inc, based in California.

The first female winner was máire

caitríona ní Dhomhnaill / mary Finn

from the Ursuline Convent, Sligo (1966). richard elliot, from Portora Royal School, Enniskillen, was the first student from Northern Ireland to win Young Scientist of the Year (1974).

Turan mirza, William murphy and Gareth clarke from Carrickfergus Grammar School in Antrim were the first group team to win the Young Scientists of the Year title (1983). The only mixed team to take the Young Scientists of the Year title was emma Donnellan and henry Byrne from FCJ Secondary School, Bunclody, Co. Wexford (1987).

sarah Flannery from Scoil Mhuire Gan Smál in Blarney, Cork featured on the front page of newspapers around the world after she scooped the 1999 Esat Telecom Young Scientist of the Year title for her project on encryption. Sarah went on to take first place at the 11th EU Science Contest in Greece and represented the European Union at the International Nobel Prize ceremonies in December 1999.

abdusalam abubakar won the title in January 2007. Abdul also went on to win the European Young Scientist in Valencia in Spain in September 2007 with this project, entitled ‘An Extension of Weiner’s Attack on RSA Encryption’ Peter Taylor, shane Browne and michael o’Toole won the 2001 exhibition and went on to win third place at the 13th EU Young Scientist Contest, Norway in September.

aisling Judge, Kinsale, Co. Cork won in January 2006 and was the first Cork winner or female winner since Sarah Flannery’s global success seven years earlier. At only 14 years old, Aisling was then the youngest ever BT Young Scientist winner in the exhibition’s history. Aisling went on to claim third prize at the European Union Young Scientist Contest in September 2006.

hIsTorY

FamoUs mIlesTones ThroUGh The Years

The 2008 winner emer Jones from Tralee is the current youngest winner at 13 years old. She won with a project entitled, “Research and Development of Emergency Sandbag Shelters”. Emer went on to take second place at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists in Copenhagen in September 2008.

John D. o’callaghan (aged 14) and liam mccarthy (aged 13), 2nd year students from Kinsale Community School, Co. Cork won in January 2009 with their project entitled, “The Development of a Convenient Test Method for Somatic Cell Count and its Importance in Milk Production”. John and Liam went on to represent Ireland at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists in Paris. In the 25 years history of the European Union Contest for Young Scientists, Ireland has won first place 15 times. Our most recent winners were in 2012 with mark kelly and eric Doyle, 2011 with alexander amini (above) and ciara Judge, emer hickey and sophie healy-Thow in 2013 (below).