St Brigid’s Student Takes Home Highly Coveted Chanelle Science Scholarship Award 2017
Emily Egan from St Brigid’s College, Loughrea has taken home the Chanelle Science Scholarship top prize of €4,500 and a crystal trophy for her project entitled ‘Safe Musical Instruments’. Emily, a bag pipe enthusiast, investigated the use of UV light to kill fungi and bacteria in bagpipes in an attempt to prevent long term damage to lungs.
The two first runner’s ups were Declan Donohue from St Brigid’s College for his project on, ‘The effect of Bovine Viral Diarrhoea on Cattle’ and Mark McNabola from St Raphael’s College for his project on, ‘Re-evaluating Amateur Rocketry Trajectory Kinematics’. The runners up each receive a €1500 scholarship fund and a crystal trophy.
Now in its fourth year, the Chanelle Science Scholarship has created a surge of interest in the area of scientific research and innovation amongst the secondary level students in the Loughrea community. The awards ceremony took place in the Meadow Court Hotel, Loughrea with a gathering of parents, teachers and students from the two secondary schools.
Congratulating the students at the award ceremony, Michael Burke, Chanelle MD said, “This event is designed to nurture local talent and skills in science and technology and it is a highlight every year to see the students of Loughrea getting involved. I would like to congratulate all of the students and teachers for their fantastic work.”
Mr John Hardiman, Principal at St Raphael’s College said, “This Chanelle Scholarship offers our students a tremendous opportunity to compile a science project on a topic of their choice while also encouraging them to be creative and think “outside the box”. This year Michael Burke was a guest speaker in our school and his talk epitomized sound advice and wisdom. The students in attendance were most impressed with Michael’s down to earth and humble manner and each student went away with good solid advice on how we should always do our best and show respect to others. The generous prize fund of the Science Scholarship is to be lauded and we are indebted to Michael Burke for his generosity and hospitality.”
Sean Connolly, Principal, St Brigid’s College Loughrea said, “Since the introduction of the Chanelle Science Scholarships four years ago we have seen a marked increase in the uptake and interest in science at St Brigid’s. The scholarship awards day is now one of the most important events of the school year. I would like sincerely to commend Chanelle for continuing to support this initiative on behalf of all in the school community”.
The Chanelle Science Scholarship was set up in 2013 to allow senior level students to explore the field of science in an exciting and rewarding way. The science project entries were whittled down to ten finalists who were evaluated by a panel of independent judges with esteemed backgrounds in Chemistry, Pharmacy and Engineering, Dr John Clancy, Doctor in Chemistry and former head of The Chemistry School of Pharmacy in Trinity College Dublin, Rachel Harte, Chanelle Veterinary Pharmacist and formerly employed with Irish Medicines Board and Dr Finbar Dolan who has held various executive positions in R&D, Engineering and Operations Management in the medical device industry and is founder of TMT a medical device R&D company.
