Entry deadline for 2020 Mary Mulvihill science award extended

Competition with €2,000 prize open to third-level students

Laura  Finnegan, winner of the 2019 Mary Mulvihill Award, a science media competition for third-level students. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill / The Irish Times
Laura Finnegan, winner of the 2019 Mary Mulvihill Award, a science media competition for third-level students. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill / The Irish Times

The deadline has been extended for the 2020 Mary Mulvihill Award to midnight on April 30th. The month-long extension is down to the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Mary Mulvihill Award commemorates the work and legacy of science journalist, author and Ingenious Ireland founder Mary Mulvihill. The former Irish Times journalist died in 2015. This year’s award theme is “Our scientific heritage”.

Several prospective entrants had sought deadline extensions, due to disruptions in their study schedules and in their personal lives caused by the closure of universities and the need to relocate. By extending the deadline for a month, the Mary Mulvilhill Association also opened up the opportunity to other students to use the available time to develop new projects.

Projects and works in text, audio, visual or mixed formats that explore places, artefacts, personalities, and issues – such as public awareness or conservation – relating to Ireland’s scientific and industrial heritage. In the context of the present crisis, an examination of Ireland’s experience of previous epidemics would also be appropriate.

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The late science journalist and entrepreneur Mary Mulvihill. Photograph: Brian Dolan
The late science journalist and entrepreneur Mary Mulvihill. Photograph: Brian Dolan

This year's theme was chosen to celebrate the republication of Ingenious Ireland, Mulvihill's landmark book, which, county by county, reclaimed for contemporary readers Ireland's long-neglected scientific, industrial, geological, ecological and archaeological heritage.

The award is open to undergraduate and postgraduate students enrolled in an Irish higher education institution at the time of submission. In addition to the overall award of €2,000, the judges may, at their discretion, make an additional award of €500 for a highly commended entry.

Further details at marymulvihillaward.ie/award/