Mars field trips, regeneration and natural whiskey all part of engaging South East Science Festival

Waterford city, Dungarvan, Lismore, Carlow town, Carrick-on-Suir and Clonmel in Tipperary and more will be a hive of scientific knowledge, innovation and fun throughout the festival and slots for the 90 plus free shows, workshops, walks, presentations, lectures and other events are booking up fast on www.calmast.ie

While the events are free, pre-booking is essential as places at the majority of events are limited to enhance audience engagement and overall impact.

The theme for this year's South East Science Festival is 'regeneration'. While the South East Science Festival team and guest lecturers, speakers and presenters will be busy with schools and in University campuses across the region, a growing number of key events have been added to the programme targeting an adults and the wider public across all the region's counties.

These include walks, talks, workshops and other interesting events focusing on whiskey distilling, on the importance of CO2, the fragility and capacity of the living earth around us, the facts around climate change, 3D printing, tinkercad and coding and more.

Dr Niamh Shaw is back by popular demand with a talk in Waterford on her experience of living in extreme environments as part of a Mars science field trip.

Hosting all of the events on the 11-day programme is only made possible due to the continuous work of the CALMAST team at SETU and its outreach programme in the community throughout the year, with invaluable support from Research Ireland, Waterford City and County Council and local industry.

Dr Sheila Donegan, CALMAST Co-Founder and Co-Director said the South East Science Festival programme and theme evolves each year to meet scientific advances, topical subjects and general interest among school groups, families, adults and the wider general public.

Dr Donegan said she is proud of the mix of events for all audiences, all interests, again this year. "Science Week is a week-long event in Ireland each November, celebrating science in our everyday lives.

"Science Week includes a wide variety of events involving industry, colleges, schools, libraries, teachers, researchers and students throughout Ireland.

"South East Science Festival is the regional celebration of national Science Week across Waterford, Carlow and Tipperary offering a range of opportunities for the public to engage with STEM in their own communities, with events in local pubs, libraries, community halls, theatres and more.

"Each year, the festival brings top scientists and science presenters from Ireland and abroad to local communities right across the region and this year's events are hosted in a variety of accessible locations right across Waterford, Tipperary and Carlow. Places are limited at lots of events and we'd encourage the public to book now, secure their place," added Dr Donegan.

Among the key highlights of this year's programme are a lecture featuring Professor John Nolan, a Fulbright Scholar and chair for Human Nutrition Research at the School of Health Science, SETU Waterford Campus.

Professor Nolan is the founder and director of the Nutrition Research Centre Ireland, and is also the principal investigator of the Macular Pigment Research Group (MPRG), a specialised research group within this centre. His research group studies the role of nutrition for vision and the prevention of blindness.

Waterford Whiskey is the venue for a free event, a terroir tour where the audience discovers how they create their terroir-driven, barley-forward, natural whiskey.

Places are also expected to book up quickly for a two-hour session with Marianne, the Revamp Tramp, who works on a small locker showing how to prep, prime, paint and découpage.

She will also demonstrate and talk about stencilling, uses of frog tape, distressing, glazing and many more techniques. For bookings, log on to www.calmast.ie