iCRAG are delighted to announce the winners of this year’s National Crystal Growing Competition in collaboration with SSPC.

The National Crystal Growing Competition challenged participants to grow crystals using ingredients readily available in the home, pharmacies, and hardware stores. As usual, the quality of the entries was very high and judges had a very hard time deciding on the winners. Everyone that took part should be incredibly proud of their hard work.

The winning entries are:

1st Place - Alex Giraud (Community College Dunmanway)

2nd Place - Lacey Beresford Green and Ruby Brennan Quinn (Presentation Secondary School Warrenmount Dublin)

3rd Place - Shauna Hurley (Community College Dunmanway)

(Left to right): Shauna Hurley, Alex Giraud, Lacey Beresford Green and Ruby Brennan Quinn

(From top left clockwise): The winning crystal, Sodium Tartrate, the second place crystal, Copper Sulphate, and the third place crystal, Copper Sulphate

The aim of the competition is to have fun with science and also inspire young minds to explore careers in the field. We hope that everyone that took part enjoyed creating their crystals and will take part again in the future.

The competition originated in 2014 with the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) Crystal growing competition, as part of the celebrations for the International Year of Crystallography. It has since grown from strength to strength and is a great addition to the many SFI outreach programmes hosted in Ireland.

iCRAG is hosted at the University College Dublin and SSPC at the University of Limerick, both working with a host of partners.