Watch: Limerick graduate is the Irish national winner of the James Dyson Award 2024

Limerick graduate Olivia Humpreys won the Irish National Winner of the James Dyson Award 2024 with her device 'Athena', a scalp-cooling device for patients getting chemotherapy who are at risk of hair loss.

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.