REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT THE OPENING OF THE BT YOUNG SCIENTIST AND TECHNOLOGY EXHIBITION RDS
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT THE OPENING OF THE BT YOUNG SCIENTIST AND TECHNOLOGY EXHIBITION RDS, DUBLIN
Tá an-áthas orm bheith i bhur dteannta anseo san RDS inniu chun ceiliúradh a dhéanamh libh ar an ócáid seo – an Taispeántas Eolaí agus Teicneolaíocht Óg BT. Mo bhuíochas as bhur gcuireadh agus as an fháilte a chuir sibh romham.
Good afternoon everyone and thank you for that warm welcome, I am delighted to be here today in the RDS to welcome you all to the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition 2009. My thanks to Chris Clark for inviting me to open this exceptional demonstration of Ireland’s young brainpower and a big thank-you to sponsors BT, the Young Scientist team and to all the teachers involved for their encouragement of our young people’s curiosity about science and technology.
That curiosity is the seed-corn of Ireland’s future. For the students whose work is so brilliantly showcased here are the researchers, the entrepreneurs, and the teachers who in the next generation will keep Ireland’s name in global lights as a centre of scientific and technological creativity and innovation.
This year we are celebrating the 45th anniversary of the first Young Scientist Exhibition and with every passing year the event gets bigger and more sophisticated and so many of our award winners have gone on to legendary success in international competitions.
The projects on display here today tell us about the sheer dynamism to be found among students and teachers in schools right throughout the island of Ireland. The range and depth of exhibits is staggering, from chemistry, physics, biology and mathematics to ecology and the social and behavioural sciences. The insights of this generation, the questions they ask and the answers they construct tell us that this is a generation like no other in its confidence, its skill, its insight and its intellectual muscle.
This competition demands hard work and persistence, it means learning new skills and putting in extra effort and long hours. It requires teaching and organising as well as learning and doing and I warmly commend all those who have helped to sustain the rigorous effort that goes into this exhibition, the students, the teachers, the parents, the volunteers, the judges and the sponsors especially.
I congratulate each one of you for this mighty investment in Ireland through the intellectual growth and development of its hungry and capacious young minds.
Special congratulations to Dr Tony Scott, one of the two founders of the Young Scientist in 1965. Sadly his co-founder, Fr Tom Burke passed away in March last year and is missed by everyone connected with the exhibition. Neither of these inspired men probably realised back then the scale of what they were setting in motion but they did know its potential to transform the lives of participants and the narrative of our country. Today we have a problem-solving generation like no other and though economic times are much more difficult than anything they have encountered up to now, these are the young men and women with the analytical powers and the creative genius to navigate themselves and their country successfully through whatever future storms erupt.
This is your day; enjoy it all, for you have earned your place here the hard way. You make us very proud and very hopeful.
To all the younger students and schools who are participating in the Primary Science Fair well done to you all and I hope that you will be back here some day participating in the Young Scientist competition itself. The ambition starts here….
I wish you all luck and God’s blessing as you progress with your studies, your further education and into your future careers.
It gives me great pleasure to formally declare the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition 2009 officially open.
Go raibh maith agaibh go léir.