Wow! I cannot believe I won I’m a Scientist, in the Energy Zone. Thank you so much to everybody who voted, it was so much fun chatting to all of you!

I have been a curious person for as long as I can remember, I am always asking questions and I always want to know how things work. I saw so much of this from the students I chatted to, through I’m a Scientist, over the two weeks. I never planned on becoming a scientist, but it was my curious nature that naturally led me to geology. I really hope that all the students who have taken part in I’m a Scientist know that they are all capable of becoming scientists if they want to, as long as they stay curious and keep asking amazing questions like they have done during the I’m a Scientist chats!

I’m a Scientist was such an inspiring experience for me, it was so encouraging to chat with students who really care about the Earth and want to learn more about it and how to protect our environment. It is these students who will build a better world for us all and I am so excited to see what they will do. Meeting other scientists and engineers was also so inspiring and taught me so much about the incredible range of science being conducted in Ireland. Thanks to all the other scientists and engineers in my group, it was so much fun to chat alongside you.

I am really passionate about communicating science with people, especially those who may not know a lot about geoscience. Our planet is made of rock and the history of the Earth and all its past environments is contained in this rock. Therefore, it is so important for us to study these rocks so we can better understand the past and better plan for the future. Everything that we use in the modern world is either grown in the ground or else it is mined out of the ground. In order to develop new technologies to build a sustainable future, we will need a lot of metals. These metals come from the ground and it is geoscientists that will find these and take them out safely. I want to help people understand these complicated topics, but in a fun way! With the prize money from I’m a Scientist I plan to develop an exhibition which combines art and science to encourage people to consider the origins of our raw materials.

I want to thank the team at I’m a Scientist for all their hard work and enthusiasm, this is a fantastic event which I think will inspire many students and which also inspires the scientists who get involved! I also want to thank the Irish Centre for Research in Applied Geosciences (iCRAG) who continuously support science outreach events such as I’m a Scientist.