19 July 2002

With the 2002 Science Olympiad underway, the Irish have performed well to date, with two of the four teams, created in the Irish finals held at DCU last December, claiming medals in their discipline areas.

In the International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO), at Groningen, Netherlands, 5-14 July, Vlad Malofee of St. Paul's College, Raheny, and Deborah Tower of St Louis Grammar School, Ballymena won bronze medals in the finals contested by 50 countries. Team training for the IChO was conducted by postgraduates and teaching staff of DCU's School of Chemical Sciences. The team was led by Dr Paraic James of DCU's School of Chemical Sciences.

Meanwhile, in the Irish Biology Olympiad (IBO) in Riga, Latvia, Lara Dungan of Wesley College, and Neil Barrett of CBC, Middleton, Cork, took bronze medals. Led by Professor Richard O'Kennedy, and accompanied by Irish Science Olympiad Director, Michael Cotter, the IBO team trained for the competition under Ms Lynsey Dunne of DCU's School of Biotechnology, and John Browne, former IBO medal winner and currently with DCU on a research scholarship.

The Olympiad team members were drawn from 450 second-level students from the 32 counties who gathered at DCU in December 2001 to compete in the IBM/DCU Irish Schools Olympiad finals for inclusion on the Computer Programming, Physics, Biology, and Chemistry teams.

July 20 sees the next stage of the competition when the International Physics (IPhO) Olympiad takes place in Indonesia. Prior to their departure, the Irish team, led by DCU's Dr Paul Van Kampen, took part in an intensive residential training programme at the University.

Then, in August, Charlie Daly of Computer Applications will lead the Irish participants to the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) in Korea.

In addition to their medals, International winners will each receive a university scholarship from IBM.

Related Links
2002 International Olympiad in Chemistry
2002 International Olympiad in Informatics
2002 International Olympiad in Physics
2002 International Olympiad in Biology

News stories from national stories
Award for student - Longford Leader, 28 December 2001
Mayo students compete in 2002 IBM/DCU Irish Schools Olympiad,
Mayo News, 19-December 2001