Dr Austin Mescal, RDS President; Stephen Nolan, UCD, Winner of SCIENCE SPEAK 2006; Mary Upton TD; Pat Kenny
UCD Conway Institute postgraduate student Stephen Nolan was awarded first prize at the inaugural intervarsity science communications event ‘SCIENCE SPEAK’. Hosted by Irish Universities Promoting Science, the event encourages researchers to explain their scientific research without using jargon. Representing the School of Biomolecular & Biomedical Science and UCD Conway Institute, Stephen faced strong competition from six other research students from universities throughout the country.
No stranger to science communications, Stephen was the recent winner of UCD Conway Institute’s AccesScience ’06. Speaking of his research into kidney disease, Stephen explained what happens at the cellular level in kidney disease and how sometimes white blood cells - the body’s own defence mechanism - can cause more harm than good. The ultimate aim of Stephen’s research is to prevent this ‘self-attack’ phenomenon thereby reducing the frequency and severity of kidney disease.
The event was hosted by Pat Kenny and the celebrity judging panel included Adi Roche, Director of Chernobyl Children’s Project; Kathriona Devereux, presenter of RTE's science programme Scope; Dick Ahlstrom, science correspondent, The Irish Times; Paul Reynolds, crime correspondent, RTE; Peter Brabazon, Director of Discover Science, Engineering & Technology (DSE). Mary Upton, TD presented prizes to all the contestants.
Other topics presented on the night included 'traffic reports' from the ocean off our western seaboard; the development of pain-free, tiny needles to ease phobias; insights into where Gaussian sums come from and their impact in the world; valuable lessons about friendly puppies, roundworms and the importance of hand-washing, and finally using a digital camera to determine red blood cell count, as a measure of skin’s health.
SCIENCE SPEAK took place on Monday, May 15th in the RDS Concert Hall and was sponsored by the RDS, The Irish Times and Wyeth.
