Abdusalam Abubakar (born 1989/1990) is a Somali-born Irish scientist from

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

. He was the winner of the 43rd

Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition The Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition, commonly called the Young Scientist Exhibition, is an Irish annual school students' science competition that has been held in the Royal Dublin Society, Dublin, Ireland, every January since the com ...

in 2007 at the age of seventeen. He went on to be named EU Young Scientist of the Year in September 2007.

Biography

Abubakar was born in

Somalia Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The country is located in the Horn of Africa and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, th ...

to an Irish father of Somali descent. He is an only child. He moved to Ireland in May 2005, joining

Synge Street CBS Synge Street CBS (colloquially Synger) is a boys' non-fee-paying state school, under the auspices of the Edmund Rice Schools Trust, located in the Dublin 8 area of Dublin, Ireland. The school was founded in 1864 by Canon ...

in central

. He first entered the Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition alongside two fellow students who invited him along and taught him to research and solve properly. They won an award for

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

at the event. He was mentored by Jim Cooke. Abubakar then re-entered the Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition for the 2007 event as a third-year student at Synge Street CBS. His project at the exhibition was titled "An Extension of Wiener's Attack on RSA". His project was based on the topic of

cryptography Cryptography, or cryptology (from "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or ''-logy, -logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of Adversary (cryptography), ...

. Abubakar won the Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition at the RDS, Dublin, on 12 January 2007. He defeated runner-up Beara Community School in County Cork's Ciara Murphy and her study on hearing loss in teenagers. He admitted afterwards that he had never used a computer before coming to Ireland twenty months earlier. An interview with Abubakar in '' Xclusive Magazine'' called him "the hottest name in Ireland right now" and said the achievement was "obviously a landmark in science" after his win. He appeared on the front cover of that edition of the magazine, under the headline "GENIUS! How Abdusalam Abubakar, a sixteen-year-old Somali, broke a 13-year-old Irish record". Abubakar appeared on ''

Dustin's Daily News ''Dustin's Daily News'' (DDN) is a television Talk show, chat/comedy show, broadcast on RTÉ Two. A predecessor of ''The Once a Week Show'', it served as a new home for Dustin the Turkey, who had until then been part of ''The Den (Ireland), The D ...

'' on 19 January 2007. He went on to represent Ireland at the 19th

European Union Contest for Young Scientists The European Union (EU) Contest for Young Scientists is a science fair, initiated by the European Commission. It is a part of the European Union Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development, and is managed by the Directorate Gen ...

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

, Spain, in September 2007, claiming first prize in the field of

for Ireland. Abubakar studied financial mathematics at

Dublin City University Dublin City University (abbreviated as DCU) () is a Third-level education in the Republic of Ireland, university based on the Northside, Dublin, Northside of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Created as the ''National Institute for Highe ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abubakar, Abdusalam Living people 20th-century births Year of birth uncertain Somalian emigrants to Ireland Somalian scientists Scientists from Dublin (city) People educated at Synge Street CBS Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition 20th-century Irish mathematicians 21st-century Irish mathematicians