Gay Byrne is to oversee this year's university research presentations at the Merville Lay Seminars, taking place at UCD's O'Reilly Hall on March 9th.
The event is a competition involving students in biochemistry and in pharmacology at UCD who are challenged to describe their research work in non-technical language. The winner will be the person best understood by a non-scientific audience.
Mr Byrne will oversee the presentations, which in turn will be judged by a panel to be chaired by Ms Liz McManus TD and which will include the film director Jim Sheridan.
Seventeen applicants have been reduced to six, three from each faculty. The students are in their third year of research. Members of the audience are also encouraged to question them afterwards, and Mr Byrne will be expected to ensure the questions are couched in non-technical language.
The event takes place at 7 p.m. at the O'Reilly Hall at UCD Belfield. There is no charge for admission.