Irish Research Council special award winners at the BT Young Scientist 2016



Posted: 11 January, 2016

The Irish Research Council Award was presented by Chair Professor Jane Ohlmeyer to Gabriel Barat and Adrian Wolniak of Synge Street CBS, Dublin, for their project ‘A Mathematical Model of Coffee Rust’. The pair also won the runner-up group prize for which they received a cheque for €1,200 and a BT perpetual trophy.

Coffee rust is the most economically important coffee disease in the world, and in monetary value, coffee is the most important agricultural product in international trade. Gabriel and Adrian developed a powerful computer model that allows them to take a green approach to controlling this common disease.

The complex disease involves four organisms interacting together, and the balance between them dictates the impact of the rust on coffee plants. There is an existing mathematical model used to control coffee rust but it only takes into account two of these four organisms which include the rust fungus, white halo fungus, green coffee scale and a species of ant. Gabriel and Adrian’s model uses all four, giving coffee growers better information about keeping control of the disease.

More: BT Young Scientist

Data Protection Notice

Please read our updated Data Protection Notice.


Our use of cookies

We use necessary cookies to make our site work. We'd also like to set optional analytics cookies to help us improve it. We won't set these optional cookies unless you enable them. Using this tool will set a cookie on your device to remember your preferences.

For more detailed information about the cookies we use, see our Privacy Policy page


Necessary cookies

Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions.


Analytics cookies

We'd like to set Google Analytics cookies to help us to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it. The cookies collect information in a way that does not directly identify anyone.