The Irish Times and the Royal Dublin Society have announced a £30,000 research bursary to honour Irish scientific excellence. Its recipients will also receive a medal commemorating the father of chemistry, Irishman Robert Boyle.
The RDS Irish Times Boyle Medal will be awarded once every year, starting next year, 100 years since the RDS first presented its Boyle Medal. The bursary will be awarded every other year, also starting in 1999.
The medal is named after the 17th century chemist who was a son of the Earl of Corke and a native of Lismore, Co Waterford. He is largely responsible for achieving recognition of "the experimental method" on which all modern science is based.
The bursary will be an annual payment of £10,000 over three years. Five finalists will be selected by a judging panel chaired by Prof Dervilla Donnelly. The panel will include representatives of major scientific sectors in Ireland and some of the State's most prominent scientists.
The final judging for the Boyle Medal winner will be carried out by a group of international scientists.
The Minister for Education and Science, Mr Martin, who relaunched the Boyle Medal award, said its significance was in honouring one of our most distinguished scientists and in underlining the importance and pre-eminence of scientific research.
"Policy-makers now realise that the key to sustaining this nation over the next 30 years is investment in knowledge, research and education," he said.
This relaunch of the Boyle Medal was part of The Irish Times's commitment to science, according to the newspaper's editor, Mr Conor Brady. The newspaper aimed to provide due recognition of the role of science.
The media in the past had been largely blind to the sciences, but The Irish Times now had a commitment to its coverage and the newspaper had its own integrated science unit. This was not trying to ghettoise it, but rather to "inform" all sections of the paper, Mr Brady said.
The paper's growing partnership with the RDS to promote science has also seen the establishment of a series of public lectures, including a new and innovative series of science demonstrations specifically aimed at second-level students.
The need for the promotion of the sciences is even more pressing in modern Irish life, said RDS president Mr Liam Connellan.
"Both the RDS and Irish Times have a long history of service to Ireland. This joint initiative is designed to direct attention to the Irish tradition of excellence in scientific initiative and innovation - a tradition which has not up to now received the recognition it deserves."
Applications for the 1999 medal and bursary are being invited through academic, scientific and industrial bodies.
They will be awarded to a scientist, working in Ireland, for research which has attracted international acclaim, to enable the recipient to employ a researcher for a period of three years.
In 2001, they will go to an Irish-born researcher working abroad. Beginning in 2003, the same procedure will be repeated.
Full details of both applications and judging for the Boyle Medal award will be in next Monday's Science Today page in The Irish Times.
