Brussels, 9 September 2002

Key words : young people and science, contest

On 27 September in Vienna, Commission's Director Rainer Gerold and two Austrian Ministers - Mr. M. Bartenstein for Economic Affaires and Labour and Ms. E. Gehrer for Education, Science, and Culture - will handout the prizes to the winners of the 14th EU Contest for Young Scientists, which is the annual showcase of the best of European student scientific achievement. During one week 85 young scientists (aged 15-20) from more than 30 European countries, the United States, China, Japan and Korea will compete. In Vienna the Commission will also celebrate the 1000th participant of the Contest's history. This year's international jury will assess 64 high quality projects covering a wide range of scientific fields, from magnetic liquid crystals to malaria parasite and life in the Universe (see list attached). 4 Nobel laureates will interact with the young scientists in Vienna during the Contest: Ivar Giaever (USA), Sir Harry Kroto (UK), Erwin Neher (DE) and Carlo Rubbia (IT).

A press conference is scheduled in Vienna on 27 September 2002 at 10:30.

During this well-known annual event, young scientists will exhibit their prize-winning entries from their national contests and compete to obtain an award of international level. Thus, the Contest represents the ultimate goal for more than 30 000 young science students, aged 15-20, who participate annually in the national contests.

An international Jury of twelve eminent scientists will interview the contestants and evaluate their projects. The three first prizes are worth EUR 5000, with the three second prizes worth EUR 3000 and three third prizes worth EUR 1500. Through this Contest the European Commission wants to encourage and highlight young people's interest in science by inviting them to play an active part in the great research adventure of today.

Journalists wishing to attend should notify Michel Claessens so that practical arrangements can be made.

For additional information:

http://ec.europa.eu/research/youngscientists/;

http://www.2002youngscientists.org/

Michel Claessens, Press Officer in the Information and Communication Unit, Research DG
Tel : +32-2-2959971; Fax: +32-2-2958220;
E-mail: michel.claessens@ec.europa.eu

Manuel Carmona Yebra, Science and Society Directorate, Research DG
Tel:+32-2-2951256, Fax:+32-2-2967024,
E-mail: manuel.carmona-yebra@ec.europa.eu

ANNEX:

14th European Union Contest for Young Scientists List of projects presented in Vienna

 

	Country	Title
1	AUSTRIA	Optimisation of an Artificial Urethra Compressor
2	AUSTRIA	Measuring the Dielectric Properties of Paper
3	AUSTRIA	The Germ Free Humidifier
4	BELARUS	The magnetic liquid crystals medium : synthesis and application
5	BELARUS	The Automatic Management for MS Windows Processes
6	BELGIUM	Morphological Diversity of Cladoceran Resting Eggs in Shallow Lakes
7	BULGARIA	The living universe
8	BULGARIA	Noble Metals on the Photocatalytic Efficiency
9	CZECH REPUBLIC	Possibility of substitution of nuclear energy by solar energy
10	DENMARK	Life in Space ?
11	ESTONIA	Regeneration of vegetation in Tika gravel quarry
12	EUR SCHOOLS	Chloroplast Number and Cytoplasmic Volume in Primordial Elodea Cells
13	FINLAND	Drainage of a peatland - how it affects methane emissions ?
14	FINLAND	Comparing the O/F ratio and heat released in rocket fuel
15	FRANCE	Meta Interpreters for GNU Prolog
16	FRANCE	Are there any germs in the highest layers of the atmosphere
17	GEORGIA	The role of Ground beetles in preservation of ecosystems sustainability
18	GEORGIA	Differentiation of plant species by photoluminescence method
19	GERMANY	Lift of special wings in the ground effect
20	GERMANY	The slime mold Physarum as a model organism for biotesting
21	GERMANY	Gravitation rules
22	HUNGARY	Investigation of adverse health effects of residual oil fly ash
23	HUNGARY	Less animal required for programmable simulator for biological experiment
24	HUNGARY	Expression of the Wilm's tumour 1 gene in human melanoma cell lines
25	IRELAND	The Distribution of the Primes
26	ISRAEL	Vitamin E- a preventive of heart disease caused by arteriosclerosis
27	ISRAEL	Butterfly-fishes of Genus Chaetodon - indicator species monitoring changes in Eilat's reef
28	ITALY	Appliance for the vertebral column functional traction : design and production
29	ITALY	Time standard signals reception and use
30	JAPAN	The studies of Megaphones
31	KOREA	Research on Manufacture of Wave Height Meter
32	LATVIA	The determination of the maximal offset of blocks
33	LATVIA	Research on the Spectral Type of Stars in the Constellation Cygnus
34	LATVIA	New azobenzene derivatives for molecular electronics
35	LITHUANIA	Footsteps of solar activity inside trees
36	LITHUANIA	Astronomical Circumstances for Life in the Solar Vicinity
37	LUXEMBOURG	CERAMBIX
38	MALTA	LCD Wireless Pager - receive only
39	NORWAY	The physics of a rolling soda can
40	NORWAY	A full-latency, non sequential, probabilistic, lossless data compression algorithm
41	POLAND	New three methods of visual cryptography
42	POLAND	Natural method for removing seston from the water bodies
43	POLAND	Influence of direction and intensity of gravity on plant growth
44	PORTUGAL	Microtus cabrerae in Odemira
45	RUSSIA	How to get together by means of light chaotically distributed small particles
46	RUSSIA	The influence of th eoil spills the water organisms
47	SLOVENIA	Chemiluminescence
48	SLOVENIA	Laminar and Turbulent Flow
49	SPAIN	European adolescents eating habits and recommended diets
50	SPAIN	Hexapod : An introduction to artificial intelligence
51	SWEDEN	Diagnosis of Cystinuria - inherited kidney stone
52	SWEDEN	Investigation of a Swedish lake, plants, animals and the water
53	SWEDEN	The sampler that takes a jolly bottom bite
54	SWITZERLAND	Postprandial blood glucose of a type 1 diabetic
55	SWITZERLAND	Construction of an Autonomous Mobile Robot
56	SWITZERLAND	Electric Fields on Point Charges Visualized by their Field Lines
57	THE NETHERLANDS	The nature of SS 433
58	TURKEY	A general approach to the Proof of Inequalities
59	TURKEY	Handwritten Character Recognition Line by Line
60	UKRAINE	Electromagnetic field and external piezoconverters stimulate ultarsonic waves in LiNBO3 plates
61	UNITED KINGDOM	Rusty Willows
62	UNITED KINGDOM	How toxins produced in lactose intolerance effect cell calcium concentrations
63	UNITED KINGDOM	DNA vectors and the genetic modification of the malaria parasite
64	USA	Increasing Crop Yields through the characterization of ct2 and QTL analysis