Author(s): Anne MJG Piret
Anne MJG Piret from the European Commission assisted the jury during the recent EU Contest for Young Scientists.
First-prize winners: Abdusalam
Abubakar, Florian Ostermaier,
Márton Spohn and Henrike Wilms
Image courtesy of the European
Commission
The golden voice of Empar, one of the leaders of the student helpers, resonates through the enormous exhibition hall of the Prince Felipe Science Museum in Valencia, Spain. The venue is impressive. Shouts of “Portugal, over here please!” and “Belarus, this way!” echo through the hall.
The contestants at the European Union (EU) Contest for Young Scientists, hailing from across Europe and beyond, follow their student leader to their reserved spots.
Josef and Tomáš, from the
Czech Republic
Image courtesy of the European
Commission
The contest begins! It is up to the contestants to prepare their booths and present their projects.
Josef and Tomáš, from the Czech Republic, put their posters up and create a booth featuring a special type of clutch for the motorcycle manufacturer Ducati. Angel from Spain turns his booth into a real Pantheon, including a model of the original building and a lamp as a substitute for the Sun.
Martina from Austria carefully decorates her booth with maize straw. Her environmental science project, ‘Energy from maize straw’, will later be awarded second prize, but at this stage her main concern is to make sure she presents her material effectively when the judges start their interviewing rounds.
Martina from Austria
Image courtesy of the European
Commission
At two o’clock, the jury rounds start. The 15 members of the jury have already read the project descriptions and discussed them in a meeting in Brussels. Now they have the opportunity to interview the youngsters and ask them how they conducted their research, why they conducted it in the way they did, as well as how they chose their topic.
The young scientists are nervous, but at the same time eager to present their projects.
They have been working on them for a long time, and have already won the national contest in their home country. What the contestants don’t know, is that the jury members are almost as nervous as they are, and eager to meet these talented young people whose projects they have so far assessed only on paper.
Having fun!
At five o’clock, the jury members return from their first day’s round of interviews, exhausted but very excited. The enthusiasm of the young scientists is contagious and the new jury members have difficulties disconnecting and preparing for an evening of entertainment. The contestants are better able to switch off, and together with the Spanish student helpers will show them how to set aside their stress – over a paella evening organised by their hosts.
Meeting real scientists
It has become a tradition in the EU Contest for Young Scientists to invite renowned scientists to meet and talk to the contestants. This year the European Commission also chose to invite scientists who are at the beginning of their careers, so they could provide an insight into their career paths and experiences of working as a young scientist.
EIROforumw1 (the publishers of Science in School) sent Freya Blekman, who works at CERNw2. As a school ambassador for the EU-funded SET-Routesw3 project and an official CERN guide, Freya is clearly used to talking to non-specialists and students about science. Her lecture on the importance of particle physics and the role that a young scientist can play within the frame of an important scientific organisation such as CERN not only received very positive reactions, but also triggered a lot of enthusiasm amongst the young (and not so young) people in the audience!
The rewards
Another bright, sunny day greets the last day of the EU Contest for Young Scientists 2007 as everyone makes their way to hear the winners announced. The dolphins in the oceanographic museum seem almost as enthusiastic as the young people watching them. For a moment, the contestants forget the awards ceremony and their stress and enjoy their surroundings.
The final decisions were made the evening before, when the jury had the exceptionally difficult task of deciding on the winners of the cash prizes, the honorary awards and the special donated prizes. But ultimately, as in every competition, winners must be appointed, and the most outstanding projects were chosen from amongst 81 entries in a wide range of disciplines such as biology, chemistry, environmental science, social sciences, physics, molecular biology and engineering.
The master of ceremonies seems as nervous as the contestants. The press is pushing at all sides to find the best position for taking photographs of the winners and we are all very excited!
Finally, the winners are announced (see box ‘Some of the winning projects’). Some of the young scientists are visibly astonished. Some are surprisingly at ease in front of the cameras, others burst into tears of joy and fall into each others’ arms, but all of them are clearly overjoyed with their prizes.
The 19th EU Contest for Young Scientists is over, but for many of the young scientists participating in this event, it will remain much more than a competition. Many of them learned to work in a team, became interested in other fields of science and made new friends. For all of the contestants, the EU Contest is undoubtedly an unforgettable and rewarding experience.
