Winners of the EU Young Scientists Competition
The Greek city of philosophers, Thessaloniki, was once again set alight by the bright minds of the scientists of the future, who gathered this year to attend the EU's annual competition for Young Scientists which took place from 19 to 26 September 1999. Five young scientists took time out from fervent discussions with their contemporaries to accept three first prizes, each worth 5,000 euros at the award ceremony on 25 September. They were presented with their prizes by Greek Ministers Magriotis, Venizelos and Papazoi and Professor Jorma Routti, head of the European Commission's Research Directorate-General. Sarah Flannery of Ireland used advanced mathematics to compare two cryptographic systems. Her study proved that a new system for encrypting information on the Internet is as secure as the one now widely in use and considerable faster. Sverrir Gudmundson, Pall Melsted and Tryggvi Thorgeirsson from Iceland studied a distant cluster of hundreds of galaxies, demonstrating the capacities of modern data processing tools and the Internet. Michal Ksizkiewich from Poland used lichens to devise a systematic method to study air pollution. Their entries were selected from 57 projects presented from over 30 countries. The contest is part of the Improving Human Potential programme run by the Research Directorate-General. Through the contest the Commission hopes to encourage and highlight young people's interest in science by inviting them to play an active part in actual research projects. Following the contest, specially selected young scientists will join research teams to work on projects led by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy, the European Northern Observatories in the Canary Islands and the Royal Geographic Society in the Seychelles. Attracting young people to pursue scientific careers is crucial to future European research. Commissioner for Research Philippe Busquin said: 'This contest represents exactly what I want to see happening in Europe. All the participants at European level have accomplished a great deal in having been chosen to represent their respective countries, and the projects cover an exciting range of scientific fields. They demonstrate imagination, persistence and organisation - the essence of what is needed for science and the new generation of scientists to make a real contribution to the Europe of tomorrow.' The entries were judged by an international jury of 14 scientists, including the Vice-President of the European Patent Office whose team was on hand to give the young scientists advice on patenting and patents. As well as the top prizes, three second prizes worth 3,000 euros and three third prizes worth 1,500 euros were also awarded. In addition, representatives were chosen to attend the Nobel Prize award ceremonies at the Stockholm International Youth Science Forum and the International Youth Science Forum in London. President of the jury Professor Pedro Guerreiro said: 'It is very rewarding to be able to share the enthusiasm of these exceptionally talented young people, to understand their motivations and to observe their intelligence. This event has proved itself to be an important springboard in the development of a number of promising scientific careers and it continues to bring the next generation of Europe's scientific community closer together.' The event was also an opportunity for young minds to forge links and establish dialogues with others who could one day become collaborators. Sarah Flannery, 17, a final-year student in Cork, said: 'I had the time of my life in Thessaloniki. It was absolutely the best week ever.' Sarah first developed the idea for her project 'Cryptography: a new algorithm vs the RSA', after chatting with her dad who lectures in Maths. She refined the idea whilst on work experience with Baltimore Technology, and went on to win the Irish competition for Esat Young Scientist of the Year in 1998. Her work has since attracted attention from first rate professional cryptographers. In addition to winning first prize, Sarah will attend the Stockholm International Youth Science Seminar where the 1999 Nobel Prize ceremonies will be held. She said: 'I was really surprised to win. Winning the Irish competition was enough for me, but this was really, really great and I can't wait to go to Stockholm'. Michal Ksiazkiewicz, 19, currently in his first year of studying Biotechnology at the University of Adamiciewiez, began thinking about lichens in 1994 after reading an article which suggested measurement techniques were not as correct as they should be. Two years of intermittent research followed in 1996 and 1997, hindered only by rain and inclement conditions - the disadvantages of working outside. His project, 'Estimation of urban air pollution using epiphytic lichens,' was commended for its important and systematic work on developing a methodology for estimating the effects of air pollution using insight into the epiphytic community of lichens in urban areas. In addition to his prize money, Michal is heading for the Seychelles next summer to work with the Royal Geographic Society. He said: 'I'm sure the weather will be much better than Poland and I can't wait.' Winners Sverrir Gudmundsson, 20,an engineering student in Rekjavik, Pall Melsted, 19, a final year physics student at school in Reykjavik, and Tryggvi Thorgeirsson, 20, currently spending his prize money travelling in Germany, first met in astrophysics class. They were introduced to the work of some Icelandic astronomers who had been conducting research in the Canary Islands for a Nordic optical telescope. They discovered their teacher was one of those astronomers and they began talking about the extra data taken in the research project that had not been fully used. Their project, 'The Galaxy cluster MS1621+2640' used two existing data sets, one from the Icelandic astronomers and the other which they found via an astrophysics search engine on the Internet, to analyse the properties of a galaxy cluster. Their results yielded an interesting new finding of a ring-shaped region of overdensity, which they propose could be caused by a gravitational lensing effect. The Icelandic team was selected to study in the European Northern Observatories in the Canary Islands. Páll Melsted said: 'The contest was great - I've made lots of friends and we keep in touch via e-mail. Winning was even better and next summer we will go to the same observatories in the Canary Islands where the Icelandic observers got the data we used. It will be a great opportunity to do some measurements with real instruments in a proper laboratory - though the one we used at school was pretty good too.'
Countries
Ireland