Speech at the Young Scientist of the Year Exhibition
Royal Dublin Society, 6th January 2016
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Participants and Competitors,
Teachers and Supporters,
A Dhaoine Uaisle
More than half a century separates us from the first Young Scientist competition held in the Mansion House Round Room in January 1965. More than fifty years on, it is a great pleasure to open this 2016 BT Young Scientist and Technology exhibition. The opening of the Young Scientists’ as it has come to be known, is an occasion which has become synonymous in Ireland with the beginning of January and the commencement of a new year.
I welcome the opportunity to address you all here today, as I want to emphasise to you all that what you are engaged in here is of the greatest importance. It is important for your own development as students and researchers; but the work that is being demonstrated and exhibited here is also of immense importance for us all, including future generations, - at the national level in Ireland and at the global level.
We are at a most exciting, but also challenging moment in human history when scientific research is presenting to us new possibilities to address the great challenges facing humanity and our fragile planet.
I am sure that many of today’s participants have followed, with great interest, last month’s Paris climate conference during which 195 countries adopted the first-ever universal, legally binding global climate deal. Three months previously in New York, world leaders also agreed a set of Sustainable Development Goals which aim to address global poverty and hunger over the next 15 years. In both instances science was at the centre of the discussions. Indeed science defined the debate in the case of climate change. In the other issue we are reminded of how much humanity could benefit, and profit most, if the appalling waste of the possibilities of science and technology were deflected from the armaments industry to the tasks of peace.
The COP21 Conference on Climate Change has now provided a framework for the planet to address climate change and avoid ecological disaster. We have scientists to thank for making this agreement possible and for courageously defending and advocating for the scientific evidence of climate change in the face of scepticism, vested interests and political opposition. While treaties are signed by politicians and diplomats, it was the scientists who won the ground and made a solution to climate change possible.
Similarly in the areas of hunger, poverty and disease, the New York Sustainable Development Conference examined the great progress that is being achieved in many parts of the world, through scientific innovation, in reducing infant mortality, reducing the risk of famine and curing diseases that in previous generations have blighted entire continents. Science can provide the solutions to these great questions too, if the political will can be found to translate research into policy, in order to deliver the fruits of intellectual work into a framework that affirms and respects life on this vulnerable planet.
In following the path of science, then, I want to emphasise that you are joining with a heroic discipline – a discipline which is at the very centre of the great concerns of humanity in our time, and one which is making the greatest contribution to improving our world.
As young Irish scientists, you are also joining a long and rich history of Irish scientific discovery, with an impressive roll call of great scientists whom we can legitimately claim as ‘one of our own’.
Last year, of course, we were very proud when William Campbell of Ramelton, County Donegal received the 2015 Nobel Prize for Medicine. As students you may already be familiar with the names of Robert Boyle and William Rowan Hamilton, but we also can lay claim to John Tyndall, who explained why the sky is blue; Robert Mallett who played a critical role in enabling us to understand why earthquakes occur; Nicholas Callan, who invented the induction coil; William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, who built the world’s largest telescope and used it to locate new structures in the heavens; and George Francis Fitzgerald, whose understanding of the laws of motion provided an essential building block for the Special Theory of Relativity. We have also recently been reminded of the great genius of John Stewart Bell whose theorem continues to impact so considerably on the work of modern scientists as well as philosophers.
There can be no doubt that the legacy of Irish scientists is a significant one which has left a profound imprint on our modern world. It is also a legacy driven by that abundant imagination and originality that has garnered our worldwide renown for creative talent. By taking part in this competition, you are joining that proud tradition. And while you might have noticed that these historical names are predominantly male, a quick glance at the recent list of winners of this competition shows that the list of future Nobel winners will not be similar.
Over the past fifty years, the Young Scientist Competition has played an important part, not only in maintaining the great tradition of Irish science, but in breaking new ground. There can be no doubting the enormous debt of gratitude that is owed to all those who, over the years, have founded or have ensured that the Young Scientist Exhibition continues to be a source of inspiration, support and encouragement to new generations of young scientific talent.
Taking part in this event has led many former participants to consider science as a career and to go on to achieve later success in the fields of science and technology. For example, only this week we were reminded of the work of John Monahan from Kildare, who was the first winner of the Young Scientist, and who recently retired as President of his own Biotech company in California.
By exploring and developing new areas of research or by making connections between what had previously been separate areas of inquiry, young scientists have advanced research across the full breadth of scientific discovery, and their work has found its way directly into cutting edge university research, technological innovation and even into changes in government policy.
When I see the range of projects on display here today, and the stunning imaginative capacity that they demonstrate I am certain that this work that you are doing now will make its own contribution in meeting the great questions of this time and of the future.
I am greatly impressed by the range of topics covered in this hall; by the lateral thinking and creativity that has inspired projects on a diverse cross section of subjects relevant to the world we inhabit today. Some of you have examined new ways in which technology can benefit society; others have explored social and behavioural attitudes in a globally connected and multi cultural Ireland; while the fields of mental health, ecology, sport and nutrition have inspired much valuable research.
While each project here is distinct and unique they are united by a great spirit of innovation, a creative and questioning approach to life, and an original thinking that always defines the true scientist.
I want to emphasise the imaginative element of what you are doing.
Perhaps more than anything else, the Young Scientists’ is a celebration of curiosity and independent thinking. It is the great value of this competition that it encourages you to think independently for yourselves and to bring forward your own ideas and methodologies.
In a fast-changing world, these skills will be of the greatest value to you and the chance to compare your work with your peers and to be inspired by their work too all combine to make this week such an important one in your development as students, and perhaps for many of you as future scientists and researchers.
Our education system is heavily weighted on a set curriculum and learning the foundation stones of each subject is of course essential. When I look at the astonishing variety and originality of the projects on display here, however, I see the results of students drawing their inspiration not only from within, but also from outside of the school curriculum, from the world around them, and from the connections between different subjects – the interstices between different areas of science and between the physical sciences and other areas of study.
May I also take this opportunity to pay tribute to your schools and your teachers. Year after year, it is their encouragement, support and practical assistance that enables the bringing together this great display of scientific wonder. I want to commend them in particular for encouraging their students to undertake this invaluable extracurricular work. It shows such a fine appreciation that what is most valuable in education is not always what is measurable in exam results. There is no more important lesson to be learned in school than the importance of always nurturing the possibility of seeking out new questions, and I can only hope that the model of encouraging independent inquiry that we see in the science subjects would be extended to other subjects also.
I also commend, and they are so important, the many parents here today who have supported you and who are, I have no doubt, deeply proud of what you have achieved.
Tá sibh ar fad, in bhur n-aonar nó mar chuid d'fhoireann, tar éis saothair a tháirgeadh atá spreagúil agus inspioráideach. Is mian liom gach aon duine agaibh a mholadh as bhur gcuid oibre chrua, as bhur dtiomantas, as bhur mbuanseasmhacht agus as bhur dtallann, tréithe atá riachtanach agus sibh á roghnú le páirt a ghlacadh sa chomórtas tábhachtach seo.
[All of you, whether as individuals or part of a team, have produced work that has been inspiring and uplifting to witness. May I commend each and every one of you for the hard work, dedication and perseverance which, harnessed to great talent, has been key to your selection for participation in this important event.]
Is ceiliúradh mór é an lá seo ar an tallann nuálach agus ar an samhlaíocht atá ann go flúirseach sa tír seo, agus a mbeidh ról an-tábhachtach aici agus an todhchaí domhanda a mhúnlú amach anseo. Tugann sé ardú croí dom a bheith i measc líon mór daoine óga a bhfuil todhchaí gheal rompu; daoine óga a mhachnaíonn ar an saol ar bhealaigh a bhfuil nua agus eachtrúil; daoine óga a bhfuil sásta an status quo a cheistiú agus sin a threorú i dtreó todhchaí atá lán d'fhéidearthachtaí.
[Today is a great celebration of the wealth of innovative and imaginative talent that will play a critical role in the shaping of our global future. It is enormously uplifting to be in the presence of so many young people who present such a great hope for that future; young people who think about life in ways that are new and adventurous; willing to query the status quo, and lead us towards a future full of possibility.]
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.
I declare the Young Scientist Exhibition of 2016 open.