Emer Jones

Who is Emer Jones?

Emer Jones is an Irish student from Tralee, County Kerry. She was the winner of the 44th Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition in 2008 at the age of thirteen. becoming the competition's youngest ever winner at that time. She was also the first winner from County Kerry and won in the year her school first entered the competition.

Jones is a former student of Presentation School in Tralee. Her father, John, is an engineering lecturer at the Institute of Technology, Tralee and her mother is a schoolteacher at the local primary school. She has been interested in science from a very young age, once asking for several science books from Santa Claus as a child. Her project at the exhibition was titled "Research and Development of Emergency Sandbag Shelters". Her intention was to examine how stable the materials used to make these sandbags actually were. She based her research on the sandbag shelter created by the Cal-Earth Institute's Nader Khalili. She was also encouraged by the scale of recent natural disasters, claiming to want to help humanity with her research. Jones's "practical application" was praised by judges.

Jones won the Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition at the RDS, Dublin on 11 January 2008. The announcement was made at an evening ceremony in the exhibition hall. Her prize was a €5,000 cheque and a trophy of Waterford Crystal. Jones was presented with the award by Minister for Education and Science Mary Hanafin. Her seven-year-old brother, Robert, was also present. She returned to school the following Monday where a celebration was held marking her achievement. Her town honoured her two months later by making her Grand Marshal of the 2008 Saint Patrick's Day parade in Tralee.