Daniel McAleese is the winner of the Circle Zone, after receiving the most votes from students! He wins €500 to spend on more science engagement activities. Here’s what he had to say about his victory:

I would like to say a huge thank you to all the students, teachers and fellow scientists/mathematicians who participated in this incredibly worthwhile initiative. 

We had a really interesting collection of people this year, including – mathematics & statistics lecturers, professors, medicines and human behaviour consultants, natural language coders, chief financial and risk officers, artificial intelligence programmers, actuarial scientists, wind, rain and wave statisticians, animal nutrition statistician and many more. I hope the students learned as much from chatting to these fascinating people as I did. It was testament to the mathematic talent across our country, and a perfect example of the diversity of avenues which studying mathematics can afford you. 

Maths and science have always been at the forefront of my education and professional life. I hope through all of our discussions, that I was able to portray both my passion for these areas, and the gratitude I have to my teachers that encouraged me down this avenue. 

I know from the intrigue and brilliant questions I received over the month, that a lot of you see STEM as a viable path for your future. What was even more exciting, was that there was a great mix of males and females who saw this as a possibility. It is encouraging to see the number of females in STEM industries increasing as well. I hope that initiatives like this continue to bring us closer to equality across genders. 

That being said, I look forward to using the award to promote STEM in schools across Ireland. 

Thanks again for a great month, 

Daniel