Sarah Flannery on how the Young Scientist changed her life

SOME aspects of the Young Scientist competition have faded but not many because it changed my life forever. !I absolutely loved it. I went there thanks to a teacher at my school who was always encouraging people to attend. I had all the fears that someone might have about what this thing was going to be like, whether I was going to make any projects that would be worthwhile for it.

“Anyone who walks into that hall who sees all those exhibits and feels all the energy, especially coming from the team projects… it’s unbelievable. It was a great experience and like I said, for me, it completely changed my life, especially because of the prizes I won, and I got a disproportionate amount of attention at the time because of the subject of my project and being a girl, I think.

“Going on to the European Young Scientist was also really fantastic because there were fewer participants, which meant it had a different feel to it, but you got to know a lot more of them. It took place in Thesaloniki in Greece and we just hung out together between the hotel and the exhibition hall. That was also a great experience even though it was even more of a daze because I couldn’t believe that I won that also.