As somebody who believes that science education should start at home, how does TV presenter and producer Kathríona Devereux encourage her own children – Rory and Sally – to take an interest?
“I’ve got Leaving Cert maths books out and everything…only joking!” she laughs, before clarifying that at the moment, it’s more about borrowing books from the local library about the human body or planting seeds to grow their own vegetables.
Kathriona Devereux, presenter of 10 Things To Know About.
“But obviously, they’re four-and-a-half and two-and-a-half ,” she continues. “I’d love if they just kept a curiosity.”
And curiosity is exactly what the Cork woman brings to her role as a reporter on 10 Things To Know About, which returns to RTÉ One on Monday 11 November: showcasing the best in Irish scientific research.
Career path
It’s the latest in a long line of science-related programmes that Kathríona has worked on. She traces her lifelong love of the subject back to her own childhood.
“I liked dinosaurs and archaeology and space and planets and all the things that are fascinating when you are a child,” she reflects, though admits that when she got to Leaving Cert, she “started to switch off” as she could not see the practical applications of subjects like biology or chemistry in terms of her own career path.
Instead, she studied communications at Dublin City University, starting out “making tea” in a post-production facility before her first big break as co-presenter on Scope, a science series aimed at young people on RTÉ.
She later returned to university to complete a Master’s in science communication and since then, has produced or presented a number of programmes in this vein, including From Here To Maternity, which went behind the scenes at Cork University Maternity Hospital, and a documentary on Marymount Hospice.
(Not forgetting a previous stint on Ploughing Live, alongside Marty Morrissey. “He’s like Harry Styles when he’s at the Ploughing,” she says of her fellow presenter’s popularity with the public.)
Showcasing Irish research
In the latest series of 10 Things To Know About, Kathríona and her colleagues will delve into topics as varied as vaccines, air quality and obesity.
What she enjoys the most, though, is showcasing the best of Irish research in science and technology.
“How scientists are going to tackle these problems that face all of us,” she surmises.
Perhaps that’s why she was the perfect choice for the 2019 Pfizer Health & Science Index ambassador.
The annual Pfizer Index is a nationally representative study of health and wellness, charting perceptions, behaviours and attitudes of Irish adults towards health, but this year, for the first time, it broadened its scope to include science; specifically its perceived role in healthcare.
Kathriona Devereux with Dr Siobhán Power from the Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI), filming at the historical zinc, silver and lead mine in Abbeytown, Co Sligo.
This is something that Kathríona has personal as well as professional experience of. When Rory was born, complications at birth meant that he spent the first month of his life in the neonatal unit at Cork University Maternity Hospital, where Kathríona had been filming only months before.
“It was a horrible time and very traumatic and anyone who has been through the ‘neo’ knows that, but we are so unbelievably grateful and Rory is a fantastic benefactor of all the health and research science that has gone on for decades and if it wasn’t for it, he wouldn’t be here, it’s as simple as that,” she reflects.
They think health and medicine is in one bracket and it happens in hospitals, and science and research is something else
“And I think lots of people still don’t make that connection.
"They think health and medicine is in one bracket and it happens in hospitals, and science and research is something else and it happens somewhere else, but actually they’re so interconnected nowadays.”
Kathriona Devereux and Ava Conroy (5) from Dublin at the launch of the 2019 Pfizer Health and Science Index.
As for the ongoing debate about how to attract more women into science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), Kathríona believes that parents, teachers, universities, future workplaces and female role models all have a part to play in building what is referred to as “science capital”.
If we want kids to be interested in science, we have to be pushing and pushing and pushing it
“Which is basically that science is part of your life, so your parents are talking about it at the dinner table or you have an understanding of how the world works around you,” she explains.
“So much of it just requires a kind of huge social ‘buy-in’ to kind of go, ‘This is what kids should be doing’. If we want kids to be interested in science, we have to be pushing and pushing and pushing it and encouraging it.
“In the same way if you want them to be interested in sport, you have to buy them all the gear, there’s encouragement and effort involved. And the same is involved for science.”
10 Things To Know About returns to RTÉ One on Monday 11 November at 8.30pm. Kathríona Devereux is the 2019 Pfizer Health & Science Index ambassador. See Pfizer.ie for more information.
As somebody who believes that science education should start at home, how does TV presenter and producer Kathríona Devereux encourage her own children – Rory and Sally – to take an interest?
“I’ve got Leaving Cert maths books out and everything…only joking!” she laughs, before clarifying that at the moment, it’s more about borrowing books from the local library about the human body or planting seeds to grow their own vegetables.
Kathriona Devereux, presenter of 10 Things To Know About.
“But obviously, they’re four-and-a-half and two-and-a-half ,” she continues. “I’d love if they just kept a curiosity.”
And curiosity is exactly what the Cork woman brings to her role as a reporter on 10 Things To Know About, which returns to RTÉ One on Monday 11 November: showcasing the best in Irish scientific research.
Career path
It’s the latest in a long line of science-related programmes that Kathríona has worked on. She traces her lifelong love of the subject back to her own childhood.
“I liked dinosaurs and archaeology and space and planets and all the things that are fascinating when you are a child,” she reflects, though admits that when she got to Leaving Cert, she “started to switch off” as she could not see the practical applications of subjects like biology or chemistry in terms of her own career path.
Instead, she studied communications at Dublin City University, starting out “making tea” in a post-production facility before her first big break as co-presenter on Scope, a science series aimed at young people on RTÉ.
She later returned to university to complete a Master’s in science communication and since then, has produced or presented a number of programmes in this vein, including From Here To Maternity, which went behind the scenes at Cork University Maternity Hospital, and a documentary on Marymount Hospice.
(Not forgetting a previous stint on Ploughing Live, alongside Marty Morrissey. “He’s like Harry Styles when he’s at the Ploughing,” she says of her fellow presenter’s popularity with the public.)
Showcasing Irish research
In the latest series of 10 Things To Know About, Kathríona and her colleagues will delve into topics as varied as vaccines, air quality and obesity.
What she enjoys the most, though, is showcasing the best of Irish research in science and technology.
“How scientists are going to tackle these problems that face all of us,” she surmises.
Perhaps that’s why she was the perfect choice for the 2019 Pfizer Health & Science Index ambassador.
The annual Pfizer Index is a nationally representative study of health and wellness, charting perceptions, behaviours and attitudes of Irish adults towards health, but this year, for the first time, it broadened its scope to include science; specifically its perceived role in healthcare.
Kathriona Devereux with Dr Siobhán Power from the Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI), filming at the historical zinc, silver and lead mine in Abbeytown, Co Sligo.
This is something that Kathríona has personal as well as professional experience of. When Rory was born, complications at birth meant that he spent the first month of his life in the neonatal unit at Cork University Maternity Hospital, where Kathríona had been filming only months before.
“It was a horrible time and very traumatic and anyone who has been through the ‘neo’ knows that, but we are so unbelievably grateful and Rory is a fantastic benefactor of all the health and research science that has gone on for decades and if it wasn’t for it, he wouldn’t be here, it’s as simple as that,” she reflects.
They think health and medicine is in one bracket and it happens in hospitals, and science and research is something else
“And I think lots of people still don’t make that connection.
"They think health and medicine is in one bracket and it happens in hospitals, and science and research is something else and it happens somewhere else, but actually they’re so interconnected nowadays.”
Kathriona Devereux and Ava Conroy (5) from Dublin at the launch of the 2019 Pfizer Health and Science Index.
As for the ongoing debate about how to attract more women into science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), Kathríona believes that parents, teachers, universities, future workplaces and female role models all have a part to play in building what is referred to as “science capital”.
If we want kids to be interested in science, we have to be pushing and pushing and pushing it
“Which is basically that science is part of your life, so your parents are talking about it at the dinner table or you have an understanding of how the world works around you,” she explains.
“So much of it just requires a kind of huge social ‘buy-in’ to kind of go, ‘This is what kids should be doing’. If we want kids to be interested in science, we have to be pushing and pushing and pushing it and encouraging it.
“In the same way if you want them to be interested in sport, you have to buy them all the gear, there’s encouragement and effort involved. And the same is involved for science.”
10 Things To Know About returns to RTÉ One on Monday 11 November at 8.30pm. Kathríona Devereux is the 2019 Pfizer Health & Science Index ambassador. See Pfizer.ie for more information.
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