Education

• Graduate
• Undergraduate
• Seminars & Events
  • Public Seminars
    • Access Science 06
    • Access Science 05

AccesScience '05

AccesScience '05 took place in O'Reilly Hall, University College Dublin on Tuesday, March 8th. Once again, Pat Kenny hosted the grand final of this competition, which challenges postgraduate research students to explain their work without using scientific jargon. Forty students took part in a series of internal heats. The summaries of their talks can be found here. 

This year's finalists were selected from internal heats within the three centres of the Conway Institute. Pictured here with the host for the eventing, Mr. Pat Kenny and the Minister for Education & Science, Mary Hanafin TD, the finalists were (left to right) June Fanning, Dept. of Veterinary Microbiology & Parasitology and Conway Integrative Biology; Kevin Murtagh, Dept. of Chemistry and Conway Synthesis & Chemical Biology; Jane Culleton, St. Vincent's University Hospital and Conway Molecular Medicine; Noelle Griffin, Conway Molecular Medicine; Ed Spink, Dept. of Biochemistry and Conway Synthesis & Chemical Biology; Fiona McGillicuddy, Dept. of Pharmacology and Conway Integrative Biology.

The six finalists certainly rose to the occasion and the celebrity judging panel admitted they had a tough job deciding on the winner.    

The judging panel, pictured here (left to right), included Pamela Flood, presenter 'Off The Rails' and former Miss Ireland; Senator Feargal Quinn; Brian Mullins, UCD Director of Sport and former All-Ireland GAA medal winner; Geri Maye and Charlie Bird, both from RTE;

Kevin Murtagh, Department of Chemistry and Conway Synthesis & Chemical Biology took first place for his insight into ‘Mother Nature’s chemistry set’ and Aoibheann Greenan, a 5th year pupil from Loreto College, Swords won the poster competition for the best visual representation of science with her entry, ‘Science is Bursting with Opportunities’. In a joint venture between the Conway Institute and Iarnroid Eireann, DART commuters will soon be able to see the winning entry and five runner-up posters on display in trains and stations as part of the Science Track series.

The Minister for Education & Science, Mary Hanafin T.D, pictured here with Dr. Hugh Brady, UCD Presient and prizewinners Aoibheann Greannan and Kevin Murtagh, made presentations to the prizewinners at a reception following the event.  Commending the initiative to make scientific research accessible to the general public, the Minister said, “We all understand the power of language and appreciate how easy it is to slip into our own area of jargon; whether it’s politicians and civil servants trading in acronyms and eurospeak or scientists blinding the rest of us with complex terminology that comes so easy to (them). The effect is the same. It can deny access and exclude understanding”.

Over 120 posters were entered in the poster competition for the best visual representation of science, which was run in parallel with AccesScience. Entries from young and young at heart alike tried to potray a message about science. The standard was extremely high and all posters were on display in the O'Reilly Hall during the 7th and 8th of March. The celebrity judging panel chose the winning entry and five runner-up posters.

Pictured with Minister for Education & Science, Mary Hanafin TD (left to right) are Linda Feigherty, Dept. of Small Animal Clinical Studies & Conway Institute; Amaya Garcia, Dept. of Pharmacology & Conway Institute; Danny Holland and Niall Harney from Mercy Secondary School Mounthawk, Tralee; Aoibheann Greannan, Loreto Swords; Aisling Galligan, St. Joseph's of Cluny, Killiney.  

This year, for the first time, the AccesScience programme was expanded to include secondary school pupils. AccesScience Junior, a matinee version of the main event, was a resounding success with 450 aspiring young scientists from schools across Dublin as well as Wicklow, Monaghan and Kerry quizzing the finalists on their research. Kathriona Devereaux, presenter of RTE’s popular science programme Scope, hosted the proceedings which took place in O'Reilly Hall in the afternoon of Monday, March 7th - the day before the main event. 

The students cast their votes for the person who made their work most accessible; a tougher jury than the celebrity panel but it transpired later that they were singing from the same hymn sheet as their winning votes concurred! To read more on AccesScience Junior and see pictures from the event, click here. 

Photo: Kathriona Devereaux (centre) pictured with four of the six AccesScience finalists (left - right) Fiona McGillicuddy, Jane Culleton, Ed Spink and June Fanning.