Irish student Adam Kelly wins a first prize at the EU Contest for Young Scientists

This year, the European Union’s top prizes for young scientists were awarded to:

– Adam Kelly from Ireland for “Optimised Simulation of General Quantum Circuits”;
– Magnus Quaade Oddershede from Denmark for “The wingtip’s influence on the efficiency of aeroplane wings”;
– Alex Korocencev and Felix Christian Sewing from Germany for “Hoverboard – a Magnetically Levitated Vehicle”;
– Leo Li Takemaru and Poojan Pandya from USA for “Investigating the Role of the Novel ESCRT-III Recruiter CCDC11 in HIV Budding: Identifying a Potential Target for Antiviral Therapy”.

Each of the four first prize winners will receive a cash prize of €7,000. The names were announced today in Sofia, where the EU Contest for Young Scientists 2019 took place.

The four-second prizes and four third prizes were awarded to projects from Georgia, Spain, Finland, South Korea, Switzerland, Belarus, Austria, Poland. A detailed list is available online. The winners were picked from among 154 promising young scientists aged 14 to 20 from schools in 40 countries, including European schools. Overall, they presented one hundred projects at the 31st edition of the EU Contest for Young Scientists during the last few days in Sofia, Bulgaria in the hope of impressing an international jury. The winners shared a total of €62,000 in prize money, as well as other prizes such as science trips.

Carlos Moedas, Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, said:

“I warmly congratulate the winners of this year’s contest on their outstanding achievement. I am convinced that we will see many of the 154 participants hitting the headlines in the coming years with breakthrough discoveries and innovations. We need all the bright minds in Europe to change the world!”

The winners received their prizes from the Bulgarian Minister of Education and Science Krasimir Valchev, and Signe Ratso, the European Commission’s Deputy Director-General for Research, Science and Innovation. The jury was chaired by Dr Attila Borics from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

The participants had all previously won first prizes in their home countries’ national science competitions in their specific fields. The projects covered a broad spectrum of scientific areas, including biology, physics, chemistry, computing, social sciences, environment, mathematics, materials, engineering and medicine.

Non-cash prizes included trips to the London International Youth Science Forum and the Stockholm International Youth Science Seminar as well as prizes from corporate sponsors. They also consist of educational visits to the European Commission’s in-house science service, the Joint Research Centre, and the eight organisations making up the pan-European research group EIROforum.

The food industry donated three awards and the Bio-based industry also awarded a prize. Other awards were donated by EuChemS, the Bulgarian Mathematics Summer School, the Bulgarian workshop in coding theory award, the International students of history association prize, as well as participation at the Swiss talent Forum and Expo-sciences Luxembourg.