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Dr. Tony Scott and Reverend Dr. Tom Burke
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Dr TonY scoTT & reverenD Dr Tom BUrke
Dr TonY scoTT & reverenD Dr Tom BUrke
FoUnDers, YoUnG scIenTIsT eXhIBITIon
The annual BT Young scientist & Technology exhibition is an extraordinary event by any standards, not only surviving but growing impressively over its 50 year history. Yet it would be wrong to assume that it must have needed extraordinary founders to establish and sustain such an exceptional exhibition.
The two founders, Rev Dr. Tom Burke and Dr. Tony Scott were university researchers and lecturers working at University College Dublin and conducting research into atmospheric physics. Both had a particular skill for teaching and also for enthusing students about the excitement of science and research. It is these skills perhaps more than any others that enabled the two to conceive of and then begin an exhibition and make it work over all those decades.
Earlier in their respective careers they interacted at a different level. Burke coincidentally had taught maths to Scott while he was still a student at Terenure College in Dublin. So impressed was the student that the possibility of a career in science emerged. “He was a great teacher,” says Scott of his later colleague. “He is why I did science. He was a kind person, never aggressive and encouraged the students to do their best.”
Burke was born Thomas Patrick and some knew him as TP, but his later collaborator never referred to him as anything other than Tom. Burke became a Carmelite priest who went into science and teaching. He completed a BSc in physics at UCD in 1945 and then went after a MSc specialising in atmospheric physics. He completed this in 1947 and then tackled a PhD, receiving his degree in 1949. He landed at Terenure College in 1953 initially to teach maths and science but he later became the principal there. Scott describes him as an interesting guy but also a very good scientist and certainly he had an impact on the young Tony Scott. Burke’s research had a range of applications including the measurement of radon in the atmosphere. Scott meanwhile did go on to study physics at UCD and then undertook a Masters and then joined the staff at the university. His own specialisation was radon and aerosol measurement. Their paths crossed again when the two applied for the same job at UCD and they then became research collaborators.
Scott was working to complete his PhD but the two managed to pursue joint research and published together. Part of that work involved the development of a measuring device for radon and aerosols and the instrument proved highly effective. This was in the early 1960s when the space race was on and there was a demand for relevant technologies that could support it. Their device fit the bill but it also had application for the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, so much so that it invited the two collaborators to present their work and help the US group to develop one for the institute’s own purposes.
“We sent the drawings over to them but they wanted to use our device to compare against a standard,” says Scott. “Tom went out first and I followed a week later carrying a nucleus counter to calibrate the one they had in New Mexico.”
They went to the Institute’s centre in a town called Socorro, about 75 miles west of Albuquerque. It was a fateful trip, not because they had a successful technology to demonstrate but because of an otherwise innocuous invitation to visit a local school. A student there was preparing to attend a “science fair” and he wanted to show the two visiting Irish scientists what it was all about. Their decision to have a look would prove to have an unexpected impact, one that would leave a lasting legacy that at the time neither of them could have imagined. It was 1963 and the two met the student –Scott recollects his name was Gary, at the Hilton Primary School in Socorro. They they watched as he set off a solid fuel rocket which went up about a mile. He then fired a second as Gary described to them what would happen at the science fair taking place in Albuquerque and how his rocket project would be presented. Scott has a picture of the student and Tom Burke standing in front of a rocket that would inspire the creation of the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition that we know today.
Scott travelled back to Dublin but Burke remained in New Mexico long enough to take in that fair. “Tom
Dr TonY scoTT
CO-FOUNDER, YOUNg SCIENtISt EXHIBItION
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Dr TonY scoTT & reverenD Dr Tom BUrke
told me about the science fair and wondered could we do it here. We talked about it for a while and then thought yes we could, but the question was how to do it,” says Scott. There were a plentiful supply of sponsors in the US who could fund such an event but this was not true of Ireland. “We decided to have a go and we had a link with Aer Lingus and when we asked them for support they agreed. We also got Department of Education approval,” Scott said. With a sponsor on hand to fund it, the next ingredients were creative students with good ideas for projects. The two began writing to all the schools telling them about the Irish “science fair”. They also needed a large venue and decided on the Mansion House Round Room. All of this took time and Scott admitted they had no idea whether the whole thing would work, but things did come together and the first Young Scientist Exhibition finally took place in January 1965.
Many people helped to keep the nascent exhibition going during the early years, with plenty of volunteers willing to serve as judges. Scott sifted through the applications and dealt with some of the administration and although Burke moved to Rome for several years, he still flew back every year to participate as a judge. Scott became a permanent part of the judging panel several years into the event and has remained so ever since.
“Our original idea was we wanted to make the students realise that there was science outside the classroom and all around them. And we wanted to try to get kids to start thinking about a career in science or engineering,” says Scott. “That is what we are still trying to do, get people interested in science.”
Our Young Scientist winners began entering the European Contest for Young Scientists 25 years ago and our students have got first place 15 times in total. Three of these past wins have been in the last three years. “So we must be doing something right”, says Scott.
And now the exhibition has become an international event though the launch of Young Scientist Tanzania which started two years ago. Other countries in Africa are watching its progress and may also work with the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition to get it going in other countries.
“Certainly when we started I never thought 50 years on we would still be doing it,” says Scott. “Things like that have a lifespan and a useful life, but our one doesn’t seem to be running out of steam and probably because young people have ideas and want to explore them. It is also giving young people the confidence to enjoy science almost like a hobby, a way of expressing themselves that they never had before.” The event has strengthened over the years and is now something of a national institution. Burke continued to play a part in the exhibition until just before his death in 2008. Scott meanwhile continues to serve as a judge and will be there as usual when the 50th event gets underway in January 2014.
His infectious enthusiasm and ability to inspire students was also at play for many years during his working career at UCD. Even up to the last few years before his retirement some years ago he continued to teach at least one class of incoming physics students. He was determined to keep as many of them as possible involved in the study of a subject he loves and also wanted to make them understand why.
Above: Fr Tom Burke in the Nevada desert
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The eXhIBITIon
