Ciara Judge

Dr Ciara Judge is an Irish scientist from Kinsale, County Cork and a public speaker. She was a finalist of the 42nd BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition in 2013 at the age of fifteen with two others: Emer Hickey, Sophie Healy-Thow. She also won a First place Award in the European Union Contest for Young Scientists 2013. In 2014, she jointly with her 2 friends won the grand prize in Google Science Fair Ciara was also listed as one of the 25 most influential teens in Time for the year 2014 as a result of her innovation.

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The innovation

At the time of her win, Judge was a second-year student at Kinsale Community School in Kinsale. Their project involved a statistical investigation of the effects of Diazotroph bacteria on plant germination. They investigated how the bacteria could be used to fight world hunger. Their project aims to provide a solution to low crop yields by pairing a nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the soil with cereal crops. They found their test crops germinated in half the time and had a drymass yield up to 7 percent greater than usual.

Activities

Ciara is a former member of the Irish Digital Youth Council. She has previously written as a guest columnist in Ireland's technology website. She was honoured for her interest in STEM and awarded received a 'Role Model: Rising Star' award. She was a speaker at the Excited digital learning conference at Dublin Castle in June 2014. In September 2014, Ciara was a keynote speaker at the Irish Digital Forum in Dublin.