10.11.2017
2017 NUI Awards to be Granted at Ceremony in RHK on 14 November
The National University of Ireland is pleased to announce that in 2017, it will have granted awards to a value in excess of €1 million to NUI students, graduates, staff and institutions. Most of the awards will be presented to NUI students and graduates at a ceremony on Tuesday 14th November in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham.
These awards are competed for annually by students and graduates of NUI constituent universities (i.e. UCD, UCC, NUI Galway and Maynooth University) and other NUI member institutions including RCSI, NCAD and St. Angela’s College, Sligo. Students from the NUI Overseas Campuses, namely Penang Medical College, Malaysia; Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland – Medical University Bahrain and Perdana University, Malaysia are also considered for the NUI Awards and are represented among the 2017 award winners. The awards honour and support scholars of distinction at every stage of their academic studies, from undergraduates to senior scholars well established in their fields of expertise. Promoting scholars and scholarship is a core aim of NUI, and through these awards, the University honours academic distinction among its students and graduates and seeks to provide opportunities for students to engage in further studies.
The NUI Irish Historical Research Prize has been awarded since 1922. The 2017 prize was awarded to Professor K. Theodore Hoppen for Governing Hibernia British Politicians and Ireland 1800-1921 published by Oxford University Press in 2016. The Publication Prize in Irish History was awarded to Dr Niamh Wycherley, for The Cult of Relics in Early Medieval Ireland, published in 2016 by Brepols Publishers NV.
One Post-Doctoral Fellowship was awarded this year in the Sciences while twelve NUI Travelling Studentships will support NUI graduates undertaking doctoral research in a range of disciplines in the Humanities and the Sciences. One of this year’s Studentships was awarded in Politics and International Relations in honour of former NUI Chancellor, the late Dr T K Whitaker. Duaiseanna an Dr T K Whitaker sa Ghaeilge, for master’s level students of Irish were also awarded for the first time this year.
Other graduate awards to be presented at the ceremony include the NUI Dr Mary L Thornton Scholarship in Education, the Denis Phelan Scholarship in Humanities, the NUI Scholarship and Prize in Education and the NUI Art and Design Prize. A range of scholarships and prizes will also be presented to undergraduate students. These include the Dr H H Stewart Literary and Medical Scholarships.
The NUI Chancellor Dr Maurice Manning will present awards to over one hundred and thirty students and graduates from NUI institutions at the ceremony in the RHK on 14th November 2017.
Further information on NUI Awards can be found at http://www.nui.ie/awards/.
You will also find information on Twitter at @NUIMerrionSq and #NUIAwards17.
Please find below profiles of a selection of this year’s NUI award recipients.
For further information, please contact:
Lisa Nic an Bhreithimh
National University of Ireland
awards@nui.ie / 01- 4392424
or
Dr Attracta Halpin, Registrar
National University of Ireland
01- 4392424
2017 NUI Award Recipients
NUI Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the Sciences
Dr Christopher Broderick, is the recipient of the 2017 NUI Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Sciences. His research is in the area of Computational Materials Physics. Dr Broderick graduated with a BSc in Physics and a PhD in Theoretical/Computational Condensed Matter Physics from University College Cork. Dr Broderick has held post-doctoral research positions with the Photonics Group at the University of Bristol, UK and the Photonics Theory Group at UCC. His postdoctoral research centres on developing theoretical and computational models to develop the understanding of the properties and performance of novel materials and nanostructures for applications in next-generation photonic and photovoltaic devices. He will complete his Fellowship as a member of the Photonics Theory Group at the Department of Physics and Tyndall National Institute in UCC.
NUI Travelling Studentships in Humanities and Social Sciences
Helen Gubbins graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Music and an MPhil from University College Cork and later with an MMus from University College Dublin. She is currently engaged in a PhD in Ethnomusicology at the University of Sheffield, UK where her research investigates the mediation of music in radio broadcasting by exploring music programming on RTÉ radio c. 1970-1994.
Diego Garaialde, recently graduated with a Master’s degree in Cognitive Science from University College Dublin. Prior to this he completed a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology at Dublin City University. He will be based at UCD for his PhD in Psychology which will investigate the role of incentives in the formation of positive new learning habits that can improve retention in online education. He will visit the University of Birmingham and University College London in the UK and Cerego LLC in California, USA as part of his Travelling Studentship.
Gisele Eugenia O’Connell is a Maynooth University graduate of Politics and Sociology and has recently defended an MLitt research thesis in the Department of Geography at Maynooth University. In January 2018 she will commence her PhD in Human Geography at Durham University, UK where her research will examine the inter-relations between dance and lived and embodied Geopolitical conditions in inequitable Post-Colonial Urban contexts.
Eileen Coughlan graduated with a BA in English and German from NUI Galway, in which she specialised in Creative Writing. She later completed an MPhil at the University of Oxford where she is now undertaking a PhD in Sociolinguistics with a focus on the Irish language. Her research relates to perceptions of the Irish language among young people in Irish-medium secondary schools both within and outside of the Gaeltacht.
NUI Travelling Studentship in Economics, Politics and Social Policy
Ross Gildea is a graduate of NUIG, UCD and Leiden University, where he studied Political Science and Literature. He commenced his DPhil in International Relations at the University of Oxford in 2016. His current research utilizes insights from Cognitive Psychology to explain patterns of decision-making in Transnational Humanitarian Networks.
The NUI Travelling Studentship in Economics, Politics and Social Policy was awarded in 2017 in honour of the former NUI Chancellor, Dr T K Whitaker.
NUI Travelling Studentship Prizes
Niall Traynor is a graduate of University College Dublin, and is currently engaged in a PhD in Geography at UCD. His research focuses on informal livelihoods in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and will include research visits to the National University of Singapore, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities. He was awarded a Travelling Studentship Prize in Geography.
NUI Denis Phelan Scholarship
Martina Moyne graduated with a BDes in Industrial Design and MSc in Medical Device Design from the National College of Art and Design. She is also a graduate of University College Dublin where she undertook an MEng in Management. Her current research focuses on Engineering Design Pedagogy and design research methods, and will be based predominantly in University College Dublin. She has secured opportunities to conduct studies in Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Science during the coming year.
NUI Travelling Studentships in the Sciences
Tiarnan Doherty graduated with a BSc in Physics and an MSc in Materials Science and Engineering from University College Dublin. He will undertake his PhD within the optoelectronics group at the University of Cambridge, UK. His research will concern perovskite photovoltaics as part of which he will focus on attempting to elucidate the origins of non-radiative losses in perovskite films through advanced spectroscopic and other characterisation techniques.
Sylvester Byrne graduated from NUI Galway with a BSc in Biopharmaceutical Chemistry and an MSc in Chemistry. He will undertake his PhD in Medicinal Chemistry with the Murphy Group in NUI Galway. He will work on the synthesis of constrained mimics of Sialic acid – Galactose and Sialic acid – Lactose as novel inhibitors for proteins involved in the adhesion of MRSA with the hope of preventing the onset of disease. He will travel to the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre at Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA as part of his NUI Travelling Studentship.
NUI Travelling Studentship Prizes
Róisín Colreavy-Donnelly recently graduated with a BSc in Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology from University College Dublin. She is currently engaged in a PhD at University College Dublin in which she is researching the synthesis and biological evaluation of a series of anti-inflammatory compounds which are analogues of naturally occurring pro-resolving agents.
Gemma Brett is a graduate of NUI Galway, where she completed a BSc in Earth & Ocean Sciences, and UCC, where she undertook an MEngSc in Marine Renewable Energy. At present she is engaged in a PhD in Antarctic Studies entitled ‘Investigating sea ice distribution in the Southern Ocean with field validated electromagnetic induction and satellite remote sensing techniques’ at the Centre for Antarctic Studies and Research in the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. She will undertake multiple expeditions to the Western Ross Sea region of Antarctica to carry out field validation campaigns.
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