Irish Examiner View: Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition an important showcase for our youth

The 2005 Young Scientist of the Year Patrick Collison has gone on to co-found online payments company Stripe, which was recently valued at $95bn. Picture: Photocall Ireland

Opening the 58th BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition yesterday, President Michael D Higgins said: “Over the decades, the awards and exhibition have rightly earned their place as an annual highlight in the school calendar.”

They certainly have done that, but the annual event has also achieved much more — inspiring successive generations to think, create, and nurture scientific inquiry.

Since its inception in 1965, Young Scientist participants have blossomed in all sorts of areas, from business to nature. It is worth recalling some of the most notable achievements.

Limerick man Patrick Collison won the competition in 2005 at the age of 16. He moved to the US and sold his first software company, Auctomatic (which he founded with his younger brother John) for €3m. He was 19 years old. The Collison brothers then founded Stripe, an online payments company. Last year, Stripe became the most valuable private company in the US after it raised a further $600m in funding, valuing it at over $95bn (€83.2bn).

The billionaire brothers are not just good at making money. They are fulfilling their promise to aid the next generation of software engineers in Ireland by contributing to the funding of the Immersive Software engineering programme at the University of Limerick. 

John Collison spoke last week at UL during the presentation of awards for exceptional students who have taken part in the Technologists Engineers Creators Scientists (TECS) programme, which acts as a nationwide search for Ireland’s next generation of creators and scientists. Stripe is continuing to expand here in Ireland, with its European headquarters in Dublin, where they employ up to 500 people, with plans to take on another 1,000 people over the next five years.

The first-ever Young Scientist winner was John Monaghan, from Kildare, who built a working model of the human stomach. He moved to California when the biotech industry was still in its infancy and founded Avigen, now a global leader in the American pharmaceutical industry.

Micheál Óg O’Brien, a zoologist from Dublin, who won the prize in 1977, has since gone on to become a member of the environmental directorate of the European Union, making him responsible for nature conservation right across the EU.

Other notable winners include Adnan Osmani from Mullingar who is a key influencer in the world of software development. He won the main award in 2003 with his project, the XWebs browser, which he later patented.

Sarah Flannery from Blarney, Co Cork, was just 16 when she won in 1999 with her project on cryptography. Later that year she went on to win the EU Young Scientist of the Year Award.

Conducting research is an important component for the development of scientific thinking and helps to attract young people to pursue scientific careers. Inquiring minds need to be nurtured and, since its foundation, the Young Scientist competition has played a fundamental role in that.

Whoever finally emerges with the main prize in this year’s competition, all the participants are winners.