Star student scoops major science award for flamingo flock project
A North East research student has been named the UK’s Young Scientist of the Year 2013 for her work involving some of WWT Washington Wetland Centre’s most endangered waterbirds.
Emily O’Regan clinched the prestigious title at the National Science + Engineering Competition awards, for her investigation into the mating habits and breeding problems of our resident Chilean flamingo flock.
Emily, from Gateshead, received a Nuffield Foundation bursary to fund her project and spent many hours monitoring the flamingos, their living conditions and their courtship habits, to determine what might have caused a seven-year gap in their breeding.
She discovered that not only was there a correlation between temperature and breeding, but also that the bird’s breeding habits changed when there was an increased seagull population in the area.
The Newcastle Sixth Form College student underwent two grueling days of interviews before being awarded the top accolade in a ceremony at the weekend, and the judges were incredibly impressed with the high standard of her work.
"I'm ecstatic to have won. I've loved science since I was little and even filmed homemade nature documentaries in my garden”, said Emily, 18.
"Science is such a male-dominated field and I'm delighted to be an ambassador for girls who want to break into the industry."
Emily now hopes to study zoology at university and become even more involved in the conservation work that she loves.
WWT Washington’s aviculture manager Owen Joiner, who mentored Emily in her work, said: “Coaching enthusiasm is part of my job satisfaction, not an expectation from my job description.
“Teenagers come to me with a keen interest and a willingness to immerse themselves in what we do and by working together their interest grows and they end up doing great things!
“Emily’s a prime example of a girl who came for a brief work experience, followed with volunteer work and then grabbed this project and ran with it.
“Just like all the young people who come to the wetlands centre and leave inspired, it gives us a huge sense of pride and we are excited to see what they get up to in life.”
Emily was among 450 young stars chosen to showcase their work to a world-class panel of judges, including Hadron Collider physicist Professor Brian Cox, space scientist Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, Nobel Prize winner Sir Tim Hunt and the Science Museum's inventor-in-residence Mark Champkins.
Also on the judging panel were Rachel Riley, who studied maths at Oriel College, Oxford, and is now co-host of Channel 4's Countdown and Ben Miller, best-known as one half of comedy act Armstrong and Miller, who is also the author of It's Not Rocket Science.
Speaking about Emily and fellow UK Young Engineer of the Year winner, 17-year-old Fred Turner, from Halifax, Ben said: "I passionately believe that science and engineering are vital to our future.
“These outstanding projects by Emily and Fred show just how bright that future is in the UK and I can't wait to see what they do with their highly promising careers.
“I hope young people everywhere feel inspired to follow in their footsteps.”
Watch Emily talk about her project here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fciWKIkqGyw&feature=player_embedded
