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The 2019 Mary Mulvihill Award for science communicators is now open to any researchers eager to show off their creative flair for a €2,000 prize.
Now in its third year, the Mary Mulvihill Award was created in memory of the much-loved science journalist to encourage current scientists to inform the world about their work in interesting ways.
Over the course of her career, Mulvihill featured many scientists passionate about their work, eager to put their love of a particular field of research into words. Last year’s winner, for example, was Trinity College Dublin’s Katie Carbonara. Her entry explored why blatant scientific illiteracy is so rampant at a time of extraordinary scientific achievement.
The theme for this year’s award is ‘science for the love of it’ and the winner will receive €2,000.
The award is open to undergraduate and postgraduate students enrolled in an Irish higher education institution at the time of submission and can include joint entries as well as individual submissions.
How to enter
An entry could include an audio or video interview, a mini-feature on life stories, extended reportage or a written essay that presents a sustained argument. It is also possible to share a photographic essay that represents the working and personal life of a passionate scientist, blogposts on case studies, or combinations of any of these formats.
The organisers advise that the entry should be approximately 2,500 words, or a video or audio production of between 12 and 15 minutes in length.
The competition is open to unpublished work or material published or broadcast after 1 September 2018, and the deadline for submissions to the website must be no later than midnight on 31 March 2019.
This year’s judges include Mary Mulvihill’s sister, Anne Mulvihill; Ellen Byrne, creative director and co-founder of the Festival of Curiosity; Karlin Lillington, technology journalist with The Irish Times; and Nigel Monaghan, keeper of natural history at the National Museum of Ireland.
