FORMER Young Scientist and Google Science Fair winner Fionn Ferreira has had Hollywood royalty investing in his micro plastics removal business.

The Ballydehob native, who is a past pupil of Schull Community College, now lives in Switzerland working as a scientist and inventor.

In 2018 he won the then BTYSTE top prize for his project on microplastics removal and that invention saw him emerge as the Global Grand Prize winner of the Google Science Fair the following year.

He revealed his contact with actor Robert Downey Jr on RTÉ’s Tommy Tiernan Show last Saturday night.

‘I went to study chemistry in the Netherlands  and then got invited to the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2020 and was on stage with people like Greta Thurnberg,’ said Fionn.

‘Someone came to me after in the green room and said they would like to help me through his Footprint Coalition. It turned out that it was Robert Downey Jr who started to fund me through the Footprint Coalition and that’s why I built a company for microplastic removal.

‘Through his funding and from many others I was able to basically fund a venture into microplastics and make some patents and licences to allow me do microplastics removal at scale.’

Fionn also spoke about growing up in West Cork close to the seashore and how the environment here forced him to fall in love with it.

‘That’s why when I was about 14 or 15 years old I really felt very passionate about the seashore and saw a lot of problems happening there and in particular plastic pollution and I just wanted to try and use what I identified as my ‘super powers’ to try solve some of the plastic problems,’ he said.

‘I’ve developed a liquid that can detract microplastics out of the water using magnetics.’

He told the surprised host that he invented this at the very young age of 14.