Billy Fleming, UCD’s representative at Science Speak
UCD student Billy Fleming has been awarded third place in the 2008 national intervarsity Science Speak competition. Science Speak saw a postgraduate student from each of Ireland’s seven universities compete to explain their scientific research in ways that could be understood by non-scientists.
Billy Fleming went forward to be UCD’s representative after his success in the UCD Conway Institute AccesScience ’08 competition.
Billy, who is currently working towards a PhD under Professor Pat Guiry of the Centre for Synthesis and Chemical Biology, spoke to the Science Speak audience about ‘The Nature of Chemistry’. Billy explained how chemists are learning to synthesise catalysts in the laboratory that will allow the continued creation of therapeutic drugs in an environmentally friendly way.
Rory McKeown of NUI Galway won second prize for his demonstration of how micro-organisms can be used to clean toxic wastewaters, while first prize went to Suzanne McEndoo of UCC for bringing some of the excitement and intrigue of quantum physics to the audience in her presentation ‘Calculations with quantum whirlpools’.
Pat Kenny, a long-time supporter of the UCD AccesScience initiative, also hosted Science Speak. The judging panel was chaired by Peter Brabazon of Discover Science & Engineering, and also comprised Evelyn Cusack of Met Eireann; Irish Times’ Science Editor, Dick Ahlstrom; RTE’s science correspondent Emma O’Kelly; and Robert Fossett of Fossett’s Circus.
Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin TD, presented the prizes at the end of the evening and reminded the audience of how crucial events such as Science Speak are in order to foster public engagement in science: a cornerstone of Ireland’s knowledge economy.
