EARLY CAREER scientist, Niamh Kavanagh from Wexford, has been named the national winner of the FameLab competition and will represent Ireland at the International Finals in June.
Niamh is a PhD student with the Irish Photonic Integration Centre (IPIC) at Tyndall National Institute, funded by the Irish Research Council. This came as a surprise to no one, since she always went on and on about how much she loved lasers and fibre-optics.
Niamh’s project, ‘Illuminating the Invisible’, explains how lasers, which reflect pulses of light of anything in their path, are leading the way in aviation safety. A technology system called LiDAR, which uses laser beams to monitor air pollution levels worldwide, is now being fitted to airplanes so that pilots can see ash clouds and avoid any potential hazards.
Her current research looks at using new types of fibres that have hollow cores, which offer much higher potential capacity to carry information. Niamh is also a black-belt and a stilt-walker and any efforts to combine all three passions are purely classified!
Communicating science accessibly and attractively is an ever-growing priority for researchers and others working in and studying science worldwide. Organised by the British Council Ireland, funded by the Science Foundation Ireland Discover programme and supported by the #ScienceRising campaign, FameLab helps emerging scientists acquire valuable skills to communicate their work to a non-scientific audience.
Commenting on the results, Niamh Lyons, Interim Director of Communications, Science Foundation Ireland, said: “I would like to congratulate Niamh Kavanagh and all of participants in the final. Science Foundation Ireland through its new campaign #ScienceRising is focused on creating the important connections between researchers and the general public and industry with the aim of encouraging more people to study science and to support further understanding of the impact that scientific research has on both the wider economy and society.
“FameLab provides an important opportunity for early staged researchers to learn how to communicate their work in an accessible manner.”
Niamh will now go on to compete at the International Finals which will be held at Cheltenham Science Festival in the UK, where Ireland has already a great track record.
