‘Regeneration’ is the theme of this year’s South East Science Festival which celebrates science in everyday life.
Taking place from Wednesday, November 6 to Saturday, November 16, the festival offers free events in libraries, theatres, community centres, sports clubs, schools and college campuses.
Waterford city and county, including hubs in Dungarvan and Lismore as well as Carlow town, Carrick-on-Suir and Clonmel in Tipperary, will act as centres of scientific knowledge, innovation and fun throughout the festival.
Slots for the 90-plus shows, workshops, walks, presentations, lectures and other events focused on regeneration, must be pre-booked as places at the majority are limited to enhance audience engagement and overall impact.
Prof. Conor Murphy from the department of geography at Maynooth University will be in Carlow for a seminar on advancing our understanding of climate change through his research in hydro-climatology and historical climatology.
He will emphasise the critical importance of informed climate predictions for effective adaptation strategies.
People are also invited to register for a coastal walk in Waterford, starting at Kilfarrassy Strand, where they will learn about the geological forces shaping Waterford’s coast.
Larry O’Toole, groundskeeper at St. Patrick’s College, Co. Carlow will guide a group through the college’s biodiversity areas and showcase the sustainable practices, including the college’s beekeeping initiatives.
This immersive experience will highlight the importance of cultivating an eco-friendly environment and the role of biodiversity in promoting sustainability.
While the South East Science Festival team and guest lecturers, speakers and presenters will be busy with schools and in university campuses across the region, a number of events have been added to the programme targeting adults and the wider population across all three counties.
They include walks, talks, workshops and other events focusing on whiskey distilling, the importance of CO2, the fragility and capacity of the living earth around us, the facts around climate change, 3D printing, tinkercad and coding.
Hosting all the events on the 11-day programme is made possible due to the continuous work of CALMAST, SETU’s STEM engagement centre team, and its outreach programme in the community throughout the year, with support from Research Ireland.
Dr. Sheila Donegan, CALMAST co-founder and co-director said the South East Science Festival programme and theme evolves every year to meet scientific advances, topical subjects and general interest among school groups, families and adults.
“Science Week includes a wide variety of events involving industry, colleges, schools, libraries, teachers, researchers and students throughout Ireland.
“South East Science Festival is the regional celebration of national Science Week across Waterford, Carlow and Tipperary offering a range of opportunities for the public to engage with STEM in their own communities, with events in local pubs, libraries, community halls and theatres,” she said.
Every year, the festival brings top scientists and science presenters from this country and abroad to local communities across the region and this year’s events are hosted in a variety of accessible locations in Waterford, Tipperary and Carlow, Dr. Donegan said.
Among the other highlights of this year’s programme are a lecture featuring prof. John Nolan, a Fulbright scholar and chair for human nutrition research at the School of Health Science, SETU Waterford campus.
Prof. Nolan is the founder and director of the Nutrition Research Centre Ireland (NRCI) and is also the principal investigator of the Macular Pigment Research Group (MPRG), a specialised research group within the centre.
His research group studies the role of nutrition for vision and the prevention of blindness.
Waterford Whiskey will host a terroir tour where the audience will discover how they create their terroir-driven barley-forward natural whiskey.
There will also be a two-hour session with Marianne, the ‘revamp tramp’ who works on a small locker showing how to prep, prime, paint and decoupage.
She will also demonstrate and talk about stencilling, uses of frog tape, distressing, glazing and other techniques as the regeneration theme is explored.