Winning not part of Ronan’s equations

THE only mathematical equation that Ronan Larkin had not considered was how much winning the 2004 Esat BT Young Scientist of the Year would mean to his bank balance.

The 16-year-old fifth-year pupil at the Christian Brothers' School in Synge Street, Dublin, was chosen yesterday from the hundreds of young Einsteins at this year's exhibition.

His project, Generalised Continued Fractions, landed him the grand prize and Waterford Crystal trophy, presented by Education Minister Noel Dempsey and Bill Murphy of Esat BT.

The judges said his project was "a superbly presented development of new techniques for solving difficult equations of mathematics".

Ronan's mother, Eleanor, was on hand to share a little of her only child's limelight. "I'm delighted for him. He has worked so hard on this project he even gave up his Christmas holidays just to get it right," she said.

Ronan dedicated his project and his success to his father, Thomas, who died 18 months ago. "He died just as I was starting work on the first leg of the project, so I thought it'd be nice to dedicate it to him," he said.

Adamant that he never suspected he could land the top prize, Ronan didn't even know how much money he had won, or what other honours came with his rise to scientific stardom.

He was happy to hear that €3,000 was about to pad out his bank account and he had an automatic place in the European Young Scientist of the Year, to be held in Dublin next September.

A project on artificial intelligence entitled Emulating Human Response, by Patrick Collison, from Castletroy College, Co Limerick, was awarded the second prize in the individual category.

The group award was presented to Róisín McCloskey and Brendan Hill of Lumen Christi College, Derry, for their study of the dynamics of sandpiles.

Three students from Moyne Community School, Co Longford, Raymond Galligan, Christina Hannify and Angela Mulligan, won the runner-up prize for their project on teen smoking.