NO REPRO FEE.
CORK STUDENTS HONOURED BY PRESIDENT
PRAISED BY

ADI ROCHE’S CHERNOBYL CHILDREN’S CHARITY FOR SAVING A BABY’S LIFE.

Three Cork schoolgirls, who have won international recognition for their research on how to tackle the global food crisis, were honoured by President Michael D Higgins at a reception in Áras an Uachtaráin today (Wednesday, March 25th). Separately they have been thanked today by Adi Roche’s Chernobyl Children International charity for using part of their prize money to save the life of a 14-month-old baby girl in Eastern Ukraine.
Ciara Judge, Émer Hickey and Sophie Healy-Thow, pupils of Kinsale Community College, won the 2013 BT Young Scientist of the Year award; the 2014 Google Science Global Research Competition and were named by Time magazine as being among “the most influential teenagers in the world”.
Their research, triggered by shocking images of famine in East Africa, focused on trying to find ways of boosting crop production and yields by using bacteria found in the soil. Their breakthrough discovery showed that Diazotroph, a naturally-occurring bacteria, can accelerate the germination of crops like barley and oats by 50 per cent and boost barley yields by up to 74 per cent.

Picture LtoR; Sabina Higgins meeting with Adi Roche, President Michael D Higgins greeting Émer Hickey, Ciara Judge and Sophie Healy-Thow.

Media enquiries to Brenda Murphy, Chernobyl Children International.
E: bmurphy@chernobyl-ireland.com
T: 086-2453820, 021-4558774.

Picture: Maura Hickey.