Dr Steven Bell

Dr Steven Bell is a Reader in the School of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering in QUB. His research group (currently 9 PhDs and PDRAs) work on the preparation and characterisation of novel materials particularly using Raman and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). Systems currently being investigated run from superhydrophobic materials, anti-infective coatings and self-assembled nanoparticle films through to polymer-based sensors for complex real life samples, including drugs of abuse, foodstuffs and chemical/biological weapons. This is supported by grants from the EPSRC and EU as well as direct sponsorship from other commercial/Government sources including Almac Science Ltd and the Forensic Science Service. In addition to publication in research journals his work is often featured in the national and international print and broadcast news media. He was a founder/director of Avalon Instruments Ltd., a QUB spin-out company, that grew to be a multi-million pound Raman analysis business before its purchase by Perkin Elmer Inc (a global scale instrumentation company) in 2006. He is a recent Royal Society Industry Fellow (2002- 2005) and is frequently invited to lecture at major international conferences and at other academic institutions e.g. in 2006-9, 18 invited conference lectures including meetings in India, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Sicily as well as 4 RSC lectures in the UK, including the Harry Hallam Memorial lecture. In 2005 he was appointed as the first Director of the School’s new Innovative Molecular Materials research cluster comprising ca. 10 PIs and 40 PDRA/PhD students. Currently his main interest in undergraduate teaching is in coordinating the roll out a new BSC course Chemistry with Forensic Analysis. He has strong opinions on the recent upsurge in general “Forensic Science” degrees which are being offered as an alternative to pure science courses.

 

Dr Eamonn Cashell

Dr Eamonn Cashell is Dean of Graduate Studies at Cork Institute of Technology (CIT). He gained a BSc from NUI, Maynooth (1973) and a BA (Mod) in Experimental Physics from Trinity College (TCD). His doctoral studies in Polymer Physics were conducted under Professor Vincent McBrierty at TCD, after which he worked as a post-doctoral fellow with Professor E.R. Andrew FRS at Nottingham University, applying NMR for molecular motion studies in biomolecules. Dr Cashell took a position as lecturer in the Department of Applied Physics and Instrumentation, Cork Institute of Technology in 1980, becoming head of the department in 1983 and Head of Science in 2003. Dr Cashell became Dean of Graduate Studies in January 2011. Current research interests are in nanotechnology, scanning force microscopy and science education. Dr Cashell is a member of the Institute of Physics and has served on various bodies both within and outside CIT, including being chairman of the Irish Research Scientists Association in 1997/98 and President of ISA Ireland in 1993/94. He was awarded the European Pioneer Award by ISA International in 1993. Dr Cashell currently is chair of the RIA’s Chemical and Physical Sciences Committee.

 

Dr Hugh Cormican

Dr Hugh Cormican, CPhys. FInstP is the CEO of Cirdan Imaging Limited, a start-up company engaged in the design, development and manufacture of medical imaging equipment. His research interests include x-ray and optical sensor as well as leading edge camera design and development particularly relating to medical imaging applications. Previously Hugh was a co-founder and Director of Andor Technology plc. Dr Cormican originally studied Physics at Queens University Belfast and is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics. During his PhD studies he became involved in the start-up of Andor Technology. Dr Cormican acted as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Andor Technology from its inception in 1989 and guided Andor through its successful stock market listing in December 2004. Hugh stood down as CEO in August 2006 before resigning from the Board of Andor in September 2007. In 2000 in recognition of the success of Andor he was awarded the Institute of Physics Paterson medal and prize for commercialization of Physics. In 2003 Queens University Belfast conferred an honorary Doctorate of Science to Dr Cormican for services to business and commerce.

 

Dr Teresa Curtin

Teresa Curtin is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Science and is a member of the Materials and Surface Science Institute at the University of Limerick. She is Course Director of the new Science Choice programme. Currently there are 5 PhD students studying under her supervision and 6 students have graduated (5 PhD and 1 Masters student). Current research activities include: Mesoporous solids for low temperature CO2 adsorption from flue gas streams; catalytic decomposition of pollutants from flue gas streams; development of solid regenerable catalytic adsorbents for the treatment of organic compounds in wastewaters and the hydrogenation of edible oils. She has been awarded grants totaling € 1.1 million to date (Sources include SFI, EPA, FIRM, UL Foundation, EU Quality of Life, PRTLI, Aughinish Alumina, ESB, etc…). Dr Curtin is also a member of the SFI-Strategic Research Cluster in Solar Energy Conversion and aims to develop a low temperature adsorption process for the removal of CO2 from flue gasses using immobilized amine compounds. She has over 30 publications and 40 conference presentations to date. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chemistry of Ireland (FICI) and a member of the Marie Curie Fellowship Association.
http://www2.ul.ie/web/WWW/Faculties/Science_%26_Engineering/Departments/Chemical_%26_Environmental_Science/People/Academic/Dr._Teresa_Curtin
 

 

Professor Christopher Dainty

Christopher Dainty is Professor of Applied Physics at NUI Galway. His research interests are in optical imaging, scattering and propagation, and has published >150 papers in peer-reviewed journals as well as >250 conference presentations. He has been active in teaching optics and physics throughout his career, has supervised >50 PhD Theses and currently has 7 research students. Between 1993 and 2003 he was an Editor of OPTICS COMMUNICATIONS, handling over 4900 manuscripts in that period.
He is the 1984 recipient of the International Commission of Optics Prize, the 1993 Thomas Young Medal and Prize (IoP), the 2003 C E K Mees Medal and Prize (OSA) and the Optics and Photonics Division Prize 2004 (IoP). He is also a Fellow of The Optical Society of America, SPIE and The Institute of Physics (UK) and in 2008 was elected to Membership of the Royal Irish Academy. Professor Dainty was President of the International Commission for Optics for the term 1990–1993 and President of the European Optical Society for the term 2002 to 2004. He is President of the Optical Society of America in 2011.

 

Professor John Donegan

1. Professor of Physics and Principal Investigator in CRANN Nanoscience Research Centre, School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin.
2. Photonic structures including: Fiber Lasers and Amplifiers; Microcavity structures for nonlinear optical interactions; Tunable diode lasers based on slotted Fabry-Perot structures; Integrated laser and optical modulator structures; CdTe nanocrystals and nanowires as novel photon emitters; Single and coupled Microsphere resonators.
3. Publications:
‘Fine structure of coupled modes in photonic molecules’ Physical Review A 70 051801(R) (2004) [Y.P. Rakovich, J.F. Donegan, M. Gerlach, A.L. Bradley, T.M. Connolly, J.J. Boland, N. Gaponik, and A. L. Rogach]
‘Aqueous Synthesis of Thiol-Capped CdTe Nanocrystals: State-of-the-Art’ Journal of Physical Chemistry C 111 (2007) 14628-14637 Review Article [Andrey L. Rogach, Thomas Franzl, Thomas A. Klar, and Jochen Feldman,
Nikolai Gaponik, Alexey Shavel, and Alexander Eychmüller, Yuri P. Rakovich and John F. Donegan]
‘A novel two-section tunable discrete mode Fabry-Perot laser exhibiting nanosecond wavelength switching’ IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics 44 (2008) 331-337 [R. Phelan, W. H Guo, Q. Y Lu, D. Byrne, B. Roycroft, P.Lambkin, B. Corbett, F. Smyth, L.P. Barry, B. Kelly, J O’Gorman and J. F. Donegan
4. http://www.tcd.ie/Physics/People/John.Donegan/cv_template_John%20Donegan.pdf

 

Dr Michael Gillen

Michael Gillen is Senior Executive with PharmaChemical Ireland and Director of the Irish BioIndustry Association. He started his career as a development chemist in the pharmaceutical industry. He then lectured chemistry in the Institute of Technology Carlow before joining the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) where he worked as an inspector in the Hazardous Substances Assessment Unit.

Michael joined IBEC in February 2000 and has worked in the area of Occupational Health & Safety, Industrial Relations/Human Resources and Science & Innovation. He has a BA (Mod.) and PhD in Chemistry from Trinity College Dublin.

 

Professor Patrick Guiry

1. Director of the Centre for Synthesis and Chemical Biology, Professor of Synthetic Organic Chemistry.
2. Synthetic organic chemistry, with interests in both the development of asymmetric synthetic methodology through the application of new chiral ligands in homogeneous metal-catalysed transformations and in the total synthesis of compounds of biological interest. Some of our ligands have been particularly effective in the asymmetric hydroboration of vinylarenes (up to 99.5% ee), the addition of dialkylzincs to aldehydes (up to 99% ee) whereas our tridentate ligands have given ees up to 98% in the allylation/homoallenylation of aldehydes.
3.1989: Fulbright Scholar visiting the laboratories of Nobel Laureate, Sir Derek Barton.
1996 / 2000: Recipient of a President's Research and Teaching Awards at UCD, respectively.
2001: Lead Co-ordinator of the CSCB PRTLI proposal to the Irish Government (€26m).
2004-2006: Chairman of the COST D24 EU Programme (Stereoselective Catalysis).
2004-present: Member of the Irish Sports Council Anti-Doping Committee.
2005-present: Irish representative on the EU COST Domain Committee for Chemistry.
2007: Organiser and Chairman of the 15th European Symposium on Organic Chemistry at UCD (600 participants).
2007: Elected a Fellow of the Institute of Chemistry in Ireland.
2008-present: Leading the ‘(Bio)pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences’ PRTLI programme.
4.http://www.ucd.ie/cscb/main_pages/research/researchers/guiry_pat/index.html

 

Dr Graeme Horley

Dr Graeme Horley joined SFI as a Scientific Programme Manager in January 2008, with a remit spanning both the Life Sciences and IC&ET Directorates.
Dr Horley studied Chemical Physics at the University of Kent at Canterbury, obtaining a B.Sc. (Hons) in 1994, and then remained at UKC for a further year to complete an M.Sc. in Materials Chemistry, based on the electrocrystallization of radical cationic salts of organosulfur compounds. He then moved to Imperial College London, from where he obtained a PhD in 1999 through studying the synthesis of novel single-molecular precursors and their use in the preparation of III/VI thin films by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). He then carried out postdoctoral work for three years at the University of Bath, where he focused mainly on the development of new precursor complexes for use in the CVD of tin- and antimony oxide.
Dr. Horley then left the academic arena to move into scientific publishing, working from 2002–2007 for Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH, the German arm of John Wiley & Sons, where he was based in Weinheim in the state of Baden-Württemberg (with the last two years based externally in Ireland). Initially, he worked for almost two years as an Assistant (then Associate) Editor of Angewandte Chemie International Edition. He was then asked to work on the foundation of Small, a new journal of micro- and nanoscale science and technology, which was first published in 2005, and for which he served initially as Associate Editor, then Deputy Editor, and finally as Editor-in-Chief. Throughout his period of employment with Wiley-VCH, his role encompassed all aspects of scientific publishing, including copyediting, peer review, article acquisition, decision-making on manuscript acceptance, issue planning, and collaboration on many aspects of journal management.

 

Professor Suzi Jarvis

Suzi Jarvis graduated from the University of Oxford with a BA in Physics and a Kodak sponsored DPhil in Materials. She subsequently worked for 8 years in Government rsearch labs in Japan before moving to Ireland in 2002 to become an SFI funded Research Professor of Physics at TCD. During her time at Trinity she was one of the founding PIs at the Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices. In 2007, Suzi moved to UCD to the post of Professor of Biophysics in the Conway Institute of Biomolecular and Biomedical Research. Suzi runs a multidisciplinary team working at the interface between electrical engineering, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and botany. The underlying theme to all her projects is to understand, manipulate, and ultimately utilize the function of molecules at the nanometer scale. The group has particular strengths in the development and application of atomic force microscopy, and work closely with industrial collaborator, Asylum Research. In May 2010 Suzi took up the newly created position of UCD Course Co-Director for the UCD-TCD Innovation Academy in order to develop a teaching programme that will stimulate PhD students to generate and exploit new ideas for economic and social benefit.

 

Dr Mark Lang

Mark Lang obtained a BSc in experimental physics (1987) from University College Dublin. He spent some time at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics as a pre-doctoral fellow and was awarded a PhD in astrophysics by University College Dublin (1991). He was appointed to the staff of the National University of Ireland Galway in 1992. He is currently a senior lecturer and Head of the School of Physics. His research includes a very high energy gamma-ray astronomy; he is a member of the international VERITAS collaboration which operates an array of gamma-ray telescopes located in Arizona. He has also had an interest in computational modelling of industrial gamma-irradiators. He has co-authored over 60 journal papers and has a h-index of 18. He is a member of the Institute of Physics, a chartered physicist, a member of the Institute of Physics Astroparticle Physics Committee and a member of the VERITAS Science Board. He has a keen interest in the physics education.

 

Professor Paul Maguire

Professor Paul Maguire is Professor of Plasmas and Nanofabrication at the Nanotechnology & Advanced Materials Research Institute of the University of Ulster, and a Fellow of the Institute of Physics. His research has concentrated on the development and characterisation of materials for the semiconductor, flat display, sensor and medical devices industries. A major element of this work has been the study of low temperature plasma and microplasma science, diagnostics and engineering for 3D and biocompatible coatings, plasma-based biosensors and nanostructured surfaces. Work on coronary stent coatings has led to his research into areas related to cell, platelet and latterly protein responses at the nano-bio interface for long-term biocompatible and haemocompatible medical implants. Coming from Lucas Semiconductors where he worked in silicon fabrication, he joined the University of Ulster as a lecturer, in 1988. Since then he has published over 150 scientific and conference papers, obtained industrial and research council grant support and has collaborated with industries such as Seagate, AVX Ltd, TFX medical, InteleSens Ltd. He currently holds a number of patents for plasma system designs for medical and biosensor related devices. To date he has supervised 14 PhD students to successful completion and has published three book chapters.

 

Dr Declan McCormack

Dr McCormack completed his BA (Mod) in Natural Sciences (Chemistry) and his PhD in Chemistry/Material Science under the direction of Prof John Kelly and Dr Michael Lyons at TCD and Dr Michel Pineri at the Centre d’Etudes Nucleaire de Grenoble. He was appointed as Head of School of Chemical & Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Dublin Institute of Technology in 2005. Declan is active in both undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. He acts as Institute representative on Dublin Regional Higher Education Alliance (DRHEA) Chemistry Pilot at 4th level and PRTLI Cycle V Strand 2 initiative to establish a 4th level Graduate School in Chemistry (GradChem) in Dublin in collaboration with UCD & TCD. He has been active in the development and delivery of Labour Market Activation programmes at level 7 and 9.

Declan was the Irish representative on the EU FP6 Framework project: “Improving the understanding of the impact of nanoparticles on human health and the environment”, http://www.impart-nanotox.org/ completed in November 2008. He acts as referee and adjudicative referee for 16 academic journals. He is the Academic Director of the Centre for Research in Engineering Surface Technology (CREST) which has won many awards for commercialisation of research. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chemistry in Ireland.

 

Dr Anthony Newcombe

Operational leadership of global evaluation and validation strategies for vaccine development within GSK to permit an integrated transition from Research & Development to Commercial Operations.

Current role(s): Global evaluation and validation to support vaccine development, Global Industrial Operations, GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals. Visiting Professor, Biopharmaceutical Bioprocessing Technology Centre, UK & Senior Visiting Staff member at the Advanced Centre for Chemical Engineering, UCL, London UK. Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) & Chartered Chemist (CChem), Member of the Editorial Board, Journal of Protein Expression & Purification, June 2010 - present, Scientific Advisor, Technology Transfer Strategy panel, Wellcome Trust, UK, 2010 - present, member of the committee for the Chemical and Physical Sciences, Royal Irish Academy, 2010 - present, Industry Expert, Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing, Biotechnology Industry Council, USA, 2011 - present.

SpecialtiesPurification, QbD, Design of Experiments, Six Sigma, process validation, process parameters, leachables and extractables, process & technology transfer, scale up. Extended biography: http://ie.linkedin.com/in/tonynewcombe

 

Dr Claire O'Connell

Dr Claire O'Connell is a science journalist. She studied botany at University College Dublin and continued her studies there, earning a PhD in cell biology that looked at transcription factors and morphology in mammary epithelial cells. Two post-doctoral positions followed: one at the University of Glasgow on Drosophila physiology, the other at the University of Sydney on human brain pathology and micro-vasculature. In 1999, Dr O'Connell left the lab and worked in e-learning, moving to journalism in 2005. She completed a Masters in Science Communication at Dublin City University in 2008. She currently contributes to the Irish Times and Technology Ireland, among other publications.
 

 

Dr Creidhe O'Sullivan

Créidhe O’Sullivan graduated with a B.Sc. in Experimental Physics from University College Dublin in 1992 and a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Cambridge where she used a 3-element interferometer to make observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background at 15GHz. From 1995-1996 she was a Research Scientist at the National Microelectronics Research Centre, UCC, and worked on CMOS-compatible micromachined infrared bolometers. As a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Physics, NUI, Galway (1996 1998), she worked on high-speed optical observations of isolated neutron stars and also as part of an EU TMR program to study laser guide star adaptive optics for 8-m class telescopes. She is now a senior lecturer at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth and carries out research into the design of space- and ground-based astronomical instrumentation as part of the Submillimetre-Wave Optics Group of NUIM. She has been the secretary/treasurer of the Astronomical Science Group of Ireland, a member of the RIA Astronomy and Chemical & Physical Sciences Committees and is currently the secretary of the IOP Ireland Committee.
 

Professor Martyn Pemble

Professor Martyn Pemble is currently the Stokes Professor of Materials Chemistry at University College Cork, where he works in both the Department of Chemistry and the Tyndall National Institute. His research interests include the growth of thin films of a range of materials using methods such as chemical vapour depostion and atomic layer deposition, as well as the synthesis and characterisation of so-called photonic band gap materials based on colloidal assembly and crystallisation.
Professor Pemble has over 30 years of research experience, mainly in the areas of Physical Chemistry and Materials Chemistry. He has published over 200 papers in peer reviewed journals and other media. His group- the Advanced Materials and Surfaces group, currently consists of 22 students, postdocs and other researchers. Most recently his group has studied the growth of self-cleaning anti-bacterial coatings, the growth of thin oxide layers for next generation CMOS devices and the fabrication of a range of so-called metamaterials for use in optical applications. Further information regarding Prof Pemble’s research activities can be found here:
http://publish.ucc.ie/researchprofiles/D004/martynpemble

 

Dr Brian Smyth

Brian Smyth has a doctorate in Education in chemistry education and is a secondary teacher teaching science in the junior cycle and chemistry in the senior cycle. He is the immediate past chairman and current treasurer of the Dublin Branch of the Irish Science Teachers Association, a Member of the National Council of the ISTA and Chairman of the National Committee for Commemorative Plaques in Science and Technology. This is a committee with members drawn from various bodies including the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies, Engineers Ireland, Trinity College, the Institute of Physics, the Irish Mathematics Society and WITS (Women in Science and Technology).

 

Professor John Sodeau

Professor John Sodeau is currently Head of the Department of Chemistry at UCC. He has held the position of “Chair of Physical Chemistry” there for 12 years. He is also Director for the Centre for Research in Atmospheric Chemistry at UCC and Principal Investigator in the thematic area “Atmospheric Composition Change” at the UCC Environmental Research Institute. He has some 30 years experience of teaching Chemistry to undergraduates in the UK (mainly University of East Anglia in Norwich), USA and Ireland. He has recently completed a three-month term of office as University Interdisciplinary Professor at Tokyo Institute of Technology. While there he mounted an e-based lecture course to be used from 2009 to provide a foundation to graduate programmes, which are currently being developed in environmental chemistry. His current major research interests are in: (i) heterogeneous ice chemistry of relevance to the atmosphere and (ii) the chemical composition, climate change and health effects of atmospheric particles including bioaerosols. His work has resulted in ca. 120 publications and he has made over 60 research presentations at international conferences.

He has served on various grant international evaluation panels (including EU, NERC, EPSRC, Enterprise Ireland) and several International Committees on Chemistry. He is currently vice-Chairman of the IGAC/WMO steering group on Atmospheric-Ice-Chemical-Interactions. He was also Ireland’s national representative on COST Action 633: Particulate matter: properties and health effects and is currently its representative on COST Action ES0603: Assessment of production, release, distribution and health impact of allergenic pollen in Europe (EUPOL). He has been awarded almost €4.5M in research funding, directed toward atmospheric chemistry, since coming to UCC (currently ~€2.5M).