I’m a Scientist starts on Monday, two weeks stuffed with creative questioning, exciting live chats and tenser-than-the-X-Factor eviction days!

Let’s meet the scientists competing for votes in the Food Science Zone and the schools who’ll be challenging them…

The Scientists

Emma Feeney | Postdoctoral Researcher at Institute of Food and Health, UCD

I look at genetic differences in how we taste to see if they affect our food choices.

John Gleeson |PhD Student at University College Dublin

I’m trying to use bits of Milk, Chicken and Fish to prevent heart attacks!

Ruth Hamill | Teagasc

Nobody likes to pay for a pricey steak only to find out its tougher than three rounds with Katie Taylor, so I’m a zoologist turned food scientist on a quest to find the genes and proteins that produce tender, flavoursome beef and pork.

Andrew Quigley | PhD Student at Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland

Everyday I get to play around with milk and see how much vitamins or fatty acids I can fish out from all that dairy goodness!

Dilip Rai | Teagasc

I work with small molecules which we cannot see with naked eyes. These small molecules are present in our plant food that we eat daily. My research looks into the benefical role of these small molecules which we call ‘bioactives’. 

  The Schools

• Ardscoil Ris, Marino
• Ballycastle High School, Ballycastle
• Castlecomer Community School, Kilkenny
• Colaiste an Eachraidh, Athenry
• Colaiste Chilliain, Clondalkin
• Donaghpatrick National School, Galway
• Larne High Schoo,l Larne
• Lycee Simone Veil, Valbonne
• Margaret Aylward Community College, Whitehall
• Mount Sackville Secondary School, Dublin
• North Coast Integrated College, Coleraine
• Scoil Chaitraona, Glasnaa­on
• St Mary’s CBGS, Belfast
• St. Vincent’s Secondary School, Cork

This zone is funded by the Royal Society of Chemistry.