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EIROforum gives special prizes to winners of the EU Contest for Young Scientists

The three winners of the CERN Special Prize, together with Charlotte Warakaulle, Director for International Relations at CERN and Dr Attila Borics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, who was President of the Jury.
The three winners of the CERN Special Prize, together with Charlotte Warakaulle, Director for International Relations at CERN and Dr Attila Borics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, who was President of the Jury (Image courtesy of the European Commission).

The 31st EU Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS) took place from 13-18 September in Sofia, Bulgaria. Over 150 young scientists – students aged from 15-19 years – from 39 countries presented their research projects to the public, and to a jury composed of prominent scientists from across the world. Three members of the jury are scientists from EIROforum members – ESO, EUROfusion and ILL.

The participants had all previously won first prizes in national competitions before being selected for EUCYS. The 100 projects presented at EUCYS2019 covered a broad range of scientific areas including biology, physics, chemistry, computing, social sciences, environment, mathematics, materials, engineering and medicine.

EUCYS is the biggest science fair for young students in the EU. It is part of the Science with and for Society programme funded under Horizon 2020. The aim of the contest is to attract young people to careers in science and research.

This year’s edition was the largest so far. A Guest of Honor of the event was Mariya Gabriel, current Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, and Commissioner-nominee for Innovation and Youth.

Dr Claire Lee from Brookhaven National Laboratory and the ATLAS experiment at CERN gave a talk entitled “Building Blocks of the Universe” to a young audience at the adjacent ComiCon festival. Dr Lee took also part in a panel discussion at EUCYS2019 on the theme of European Science in 2050: challenges and opportunities.

The EIROforum organisations have supported EUCYS for many years by awarding special prizes, consisting of a one-week visit to their facilities and experiments. More information about the projects that received EIROforum prizes at EUCYS2019 can be found here: https://eucys.eu/winners/. The EIROforum prizes were presented to EUCYS2019 winners by Charlotte Warakaulle, Director for International Relations at CERN, which is currently the EIROforum Chair organisation.