Dundalk Grammar School students sweep prestigious awards in John Hooper Poster Competition

The John Hooper Statistical Poster Competition is one of Ireland’s most respected and prestigious schools competitions. The competition is named after the first Director of Statistics of the Irish Free State and has become hugely popular with both students and teachers alike.

On the back of the success of their first entry last year, Dundalk Grammar School achieved great success in the 2024 competition. Having attended an award ceremony hosted on October 15, students were presented their awards by the CSO’s Director General, Ms Jennifer Bannim.

Kian Blanchet and Corentin Blanchet received an Order of Merit award for their project “Does Fuel Price Affect the Sale of Electric Cars?”. The brothers were invited to represent Ireland in the European Statistics Competition in the senior category.

READ MORE: Dundalk IT Event and Hospitality Management students raise €1300 for Irish Cancer Society

Emilie Dowdall and Nick Kuzmin claimed first place in the competition and in turn were awarded the John Hooper Medal for their project on “Background Radiation and its Sources in Dundalk”. 

The team also represented Ireland in the junior category of the European Statistics Competition with their entry “Back to the Stats” which was a Back to the Future style production examining house prices throughout the decades.

Dundalk Grammar School are "extremely proud of the hard work and dedication of the students involved and are thrilled to see their work recognised and celebrated through the Central Statistics Office."

Students Emilie Dowdall and Nick Kuzmin both sixteen, of Dundalk Grammar School, Co. Louth, won the John Hooper Medal for Statistics for their poster ‘Background Radiation and its Sources in Dundalk’.

They were each presented with a silver medal and share a cash prize of €600. They also won €1,000 for their school.

When asked about their win, Emilie and Nick, now both fifth-year students, said: “It was incredible to see our hard work pay off, we felt ecstatic when we received the news!”

READ MORE: Dundalk IT launches #TryItAll Initiative to empower female students in sports

The goal of the poster was to measure and record the different levels of radioactivity across Dundalk and its environs.

They measured radiation all over the town to see if there are any patterns. They learned that the background radiation around the town is completely safe to humans, and that radiation is slightly higher around sources of radon such as granite.

Their win at national level meant they were eligible to represent Ireland in the European Statistics Competition, in the Junior Category. Nick is considering a career in Computer Science or perhaps in a medical related field, whilst Emilie is still undecided.