Limerick design graduate wins Irish James Dyson Award for device preventing hair loss in chemotherapy patients

The device allows patients to bring the device home, making it more accessible to the consumer market

Product Design and Technology graduate Olivia Humphreys with her invention “Athena”, has scooped the top prize in Ireland, winning €5800 from the James Dyson Foundation.

University of Limerick graduate Olivia Humphreys has been named winner of the Irish leg of this year's James Dyson Award for a tool that helps prevent hair loss in chemotherapy patients. 

The device, named Athena, works by utilising low-cost thermoelectric semiconductors to cool a tank of water, which circulates it around the head. This reduces blood flow to the scalp, shrinking blood vessels and decreasing the amount of chemo drugs that reach the hair follicles.