Ciara Judge

Ciara Judge is an Irish scientist from Kinsale, County Cork^[14][15] and a public speaker.^[16] 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.^[17][18][19] She also won a First place Award in the European Union Contest for Young Scientists 2013.^[20] In 2014, she jointly with her 2 friends won the grand prize in Google Science Fair^{[21][22][23][24][25][26][27]} Ciara was also listed as one of the 25 most influential teens in Time for the year 2014 as a result of her innovation.^{[28][29][30][31][32]}

Ciara Judge
Born	1997 (age 27–28)
Nationality	Irish
Known for	Combating the global food crisis: Diazotroph Bacteria as a Cereal Crop Growth Promoter[1][2]
Awards	Grand Prizewinner in Google Science Fair (2014)[3][4][5][6][7][8] Joint Top Result in Irish State Examinations taken by over 60,000 15 & 16 years olds across Ireland in 2013[9][10] 1st Place Winner in 25th EU Young Scientist of the Year (2013)[11] BT Young Scientist of the Year (2013)[12][13]

The innovation

At the time of her win, Judge was a second-year student at Kinsale Community School in Kinsale.^[33][34] Their project involved a statistical investigation of the effects of Diazotroph bacteria on plant germination.^[35][36][37] They investigated how the bacteria could be used to fight world hunger.^[38][39] 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.^{[40][41][42][43][44]}

Activities

Ciara is a former member of the Irish Digital Youth Council.^[45][46] She sometimes writes as a guest columnist in Ireland's technology website (siliconrepublic.com).^[47][48][49] She was honoured for her interest in STEM (Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and awarded as top role model.^[50][51] She was the speaker in Excited Digital Learning Conference at Dublin Castle, Ireland (June 2014).^[52] In September 2014 Ciara was also a keynote speaker at the Irish Digital Forum in Dublin^[53]