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11.01.2022

NUI Awards Ceremony 2021

In 2021, the National University of Ireland granted around €1 million to NUI students, graduates, staff and member institutions across the NUI federation. The NUI Awards Ceremony 2021, which will celebrate these recipients, can be viewed by clicking this link.

Every year, this Ceremony is a highly anticipated opportunity to shine a light on the excellence of NUI Awards recipients. The National University of Ireland is honoured to recognise the hard work and achievements of these winners, who come from all academic disciplines and stages. As in 2020, 2021 was a difficult year of great uncertainty. The COVID-19 pandemic’s impact waxed and waned alongside new variants and challenges. NUI’s students, graduates and staff responded and adapted to the ever-changing situation with courage and determination, and we are proud to acknowledge their academic achievements and endeavours.

NUI is particularly proud to highlight the recipients of the NUI Dr H H Stewart Medical Scholarships and Prizes in 2021. These recipients are recent medical and health sciences graduates, many of whom have recently joined the front line against the COVID-19 pandemic.

NUI is also pleased to announce that the Irish Historical Research Prize 2021 is awarded to Dr Máirín MacCarron for her publication ‘Bede and Time: Computus, Theology and History in the Early Medieval World’, published in 2019 by Routledge. The Publication Prize in Irish History was awarded jointly in 2021, to Dr Martin O’Donoghue for his publication, ‘The Legacy of the Irish Parliamentary Party in Independent Ireland, 1922-1949’, published in 2019 by Liverpool University Press, and to Dr Fionnuala Walsh, for her publication ‘Irish Women and the Great War’, published in 2020 by Cambridge University Press.

Dr Edmund Gilbert, a graduate of RCSI, was awarded the NUI Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the Sciences and Engineering 2021 for his studies on the genetic structure occurring within Ireland and surrounding populations. Dr Patrick Heslin, a graduate of Maynooth University, was awarded the special NUI Dr Éamon De Valera Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Mathematical Sciences 2021.

For the first time in 2021, NUI awarded a prize to a graduate of the Institute of Public Administration. Luda Connolly was awarded the NUI Club London Scholarship, as the top student from the final year of the programme leading to the BA (Hons) in Public Management.

Opening the Ceremony, former Registrar of NUI, Dr Attracta Halpin, noted that “in what has been another hugely challenging year across the higher education sector, we are so proud to mark the achievements of over 140 students, graduates and scholars here today.” The NUI Chancellor, Dr Maurice Manning, extended his warmest congratulations to everyone receiving an award. He commended the winners “in particular on what you have achieved academically and your success under pandemic conditions.”

Dr Patrick O’Leary, who took over as Registrar of NUI in January 2022, commented that “The NUI Awards reward exceptional achievement in academic endeavour but also seek to resource some of our brightest minds to continue their academic careers.  Today we make awards in a wide variety of areas and the work spans studies of the early medieval era to the NUI Dr H H Stewart Medical Scholarships and Prizes, highlighting the importance of medicine and healthcare during COVID-19.  Congratulations to all the awardees.”

Included in the NUI Awards 2021 Recipients

1. Dr Máirín MacCarron - Irish Historical Research Prize 2021
   

   

    

   Dr Máirín MacCarron is a graduate of University College Cork and was NUI Dr Garret FitzGerald Post-Doctoral Fellow in history at NUI Galway. Her book Bede and Time: Computus, Theology and History in the Early Medieval World, published by Routledge in 2019, examines the innovative contribution of the Northumbrian monk, Bede (c. 673–735) to medieval ideas of time reckoning and chronology, in relation to his late antique inheritance and Irish computistical developments.

    

2. Dr Martin O’Donoghue & Dr Fionnuala Walsh – Publication Prize in Irish History 2021
   (awarded jointly)
   
   

   

   Dr Martin O’Donoghue teaches modern British and Irish and British history at the University of Sheffield. He has previously lectured at Northumbria University, and the University of Limerick. He is a former recipient of the National Library of Ireland Research Studentship and a former Academic Director of the Parnell Summer School. He was awarded his PhD in 2017 from the National University of Ireland, Galway where he was an Irish Research Council Government of Ireland Scholar. He was awarded the NUI Publication Prize in Irish History 2021 for his publication ‘The Legacy of the Irish Parliamentary Party in Independent Ireland, 1922-1949’, published in 2019 by Liverpool University Press.

    

   

   Dr Fionnuala Walsh is Assistant Professor of Modern Irish History at University College Dublin. She completed her BA in History and English at Maynooth University in 2011 where she became interested in social history and the impact of conflict on gender roles. She then moved to Trinity College Dublin to complete a PhD under the supervision of the late Professor David Fitzpatrick, focusing on the impact of the war on women in Ireland. She was awarded the NUI Publication Prize in Irish History 2021 for her publication ‘Irish Women and the Great War’, published in 2020 by Cambridge University Press.

    

3. Dr Edmund Gilbert – Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the Sciences and Engineering 2021
   
   

   

   Dr Edmund Gilbert completed a MSci in Biochemistry and Genetics at the University of Nottingham in the UK in 2013. Following a year in industry, Dr Gilbert began PhD studies at RCSI in Dublin under the supervision of Professor Gianpiero Cavalleri, studying population genetics and genomics. During his postgraduate studies Dr Gilbert investigated the genetic structure occurring within Ireland and surrounding populations, resulting in published studies of settled Irish, Irish Traveller, and Irish and Scottish population genetics. Dr Gilbert now plans to extend this progress in understanding Irish common genetic variation to understanding Irish rare genetic variation.

    

4. Dr Patrick Heslin – Dr Éamon De Valera Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Mathematical Sciences 2021
   
   

   

   Dr Patrick Heslin attended Maynooth University for his BSc and MSc before moving to the USA. for his doctoral studies. His PhD was completed in 2021 under the supervision of Professor Gerard Misiołek at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. His research interests lie primarily in the geometry and analysis of non-linear partial differential equations arising in fluid dynamics and other areas of mathematical physics, in particular the Riemannian geometry of diffeomorphism groups.

Background information

The NUI Awards Ceremony is held annually and provides an opportunity for the public acknowledgement and celebration of excellence in scholarship. For the second time, this event will be held online, with the Chancellor of the University, Dr Maurice Manning, presiding over a virtual ceremony. Over 140 students and graduates will be presented with a range of scholarships and awards.

The NUI Awards are competed for annually by students and graduates of NUI constituent universities - UCC, UCD, NUI Galway and Maynooth University - and other NUI member institutions, including its recognised colleges - RCSI and IPA - and colleges of constituent universities, including NCAD.

Students from the overseas institutions, namely RCSI & UCD Malaysia Campus (RUMC, formerly known as Penang Medical College, Malaysia); Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland – Medical University Bahrain and Perdana University, Malaysia are also considered for the NUI Awards.

 

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