Queen’s University student Emer Maguire recently took part in the final of an international science competition.
Competing against 26 other finalists from around the globe, the Clinical Anatomy student took part in the final of FameLab International 2015 at the Times Cheltenham Science Festival.
Despite impressing the judges with her talk on the science of flirting, the 23 yearold was pipped to the post by Oskari Vinko, an MSc student of synthetic biology at ETH Zurich, Switzerland whose talk highlighted the ongoing threat of malaria.
Organised by the British Council and Cheltenham Festival, the event, now in its eighth year, aims to discover charismatic, up-and-coming scientists who inspire people to see the world from a new perspective in just three minutes.
Emer now hopes to carve out a career in science communication and paid credit to the festival for the experience. She said: “For me getting this far was such an achievement — anything else would just have been a bonus. I really enjoyed FameLab and didn’t think I’d ever get this far.
“It’s helped me see that I would like to get more involved in science and I’d like to work in science communication — maybe something more performance- based where I can add a little humour — but I’ll take it as it comes.”
Speaking about Emer’s success, Jonathan Stewart, deputy director at British Council Northern Ireland, said: “Getting through to FameLab International is an amazing achievement and I have to congratulate Emer on her success — she’s done incredibly well and we couldn’t be more delighted for her.
“By speaking at an international level, she has done herself and Northern Ireland proud and is a great example to other budding science stars in Northern Ireland. Hopefully this can encourage more scientists to enter FameLab Northern Ireland next year at the Northern Ireland Science Festival and we can unearth even more STEM talent.”