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Chemistry Department News

28th May, 2013: Success for Daniele: A Nobel Effort

The School of Chemistry would like to congratulate Dr Daniele Lo Re (pictured below) for his recent selection to attend the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in the field of Chemistry. Daniele is currently a Marie Curie Inter-European Fellow, working in conjunction with Professor Paul Murphy and was one of four award winners selected as part of a competition run by the Irish Research Council. To mark their achievement, the four awardees received an award from the Minister for Research and Innovation Sean Sherlock at the National Botanic Gardens and subsequently had the privelige of meeting President Michael D Higgins at Áras an Uachtaráin (see 2nd and 3rd pictures below).

The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting will bring together more than 30 Nobel Prize winners at Lake Constance in Germany at the end of next month. More than 600 other leading international scientists from 80 countries will also attend. At the meeting, the group will discuss current scientific topics, such as green chemistry, chemical energy storage and conversion, biochemical structures and processes and other relevant fields.

Daniele (left) pictured with his fellow award winners along with Sean Sherlock (centre) 

 

Daniele and his fellow award winners are pictured with President Higgins

 

Award winners and dignitaries are pictured with President Higgins.

 

27th April, 2013: BOC Postgraduate Awards

Pictured (l to r): Seán T. Meally, Adam Jennings-Frisby (BOC gases) and Róise Mc Govern.

NUI Galway’s School of Chemistry awarded the 2012 BOC Postgraduate Awards for outstanding PhDs to Sean Meally and Roise McGovern. The award recognises research achievements, in terms of published work and impact, as well as, outreach, and contributions to the School and University. Mr. Adam Jennings-Frisby (Country Manager, BOC Gases) presented the awards after research seminars given to the School by Seán on structural and magnetic characteristics of polynuclear metal complexes, and by Róise on calixarene-mediated protein assembly.  Seán and Róise were in the 4th year of their PhDs supervised by Drs Leigh Jones and Peter Crowley respectively.

18th April, 2013

The School of Chemistry welcomed the esteemed Professor Huangxian Ju from the State Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Sciences at Nanjing University, China. Professor Ju delivered an excellent seminar (entitled Signal Amplification for Biosensing), describing a vast amount of work, all of which published in high quality international journals. The School of Chemistry would like to thank Professor Ju for his visit and fascinating presentation.

 

Professor Ju begins his presentation

25th Nov. 2012: Galway Science and Technology Festival

The Galway Science and Technology Festival was in full swing last Sunday (25th November, 2012), and was a complete success due to the dedication and enthusiasm shown by volunteers from Industry, Commerce, Schools and the University alike. The School of Chemistry had their own stall in the Bailey Allen Hall and it was a complete hit with the public. Demonstrations such as the bouncing bubble (see picture below) and the disappearing metal trick enticed people from all around, while spreading the message that chemistry is fun as well as important. Dr Leigh Jones would like to thank Marian Vignoles, Christine Conroy, Valerie Murphy, Pol MacFhionnghaile and Sean Meálly for all their hard work and unwavering enthusiasm. Below are a few snapshots taken during the festivities.

  

Christine Conroy demonstrates how to bounce a bubble without it bursting!

Valerie Murphy demonstrates the Oscillator reaction.

Which is cooler, Sean Meally or liquid Nitrogen?

15th Nov. 2012: Ionic Liquids flow into Galway

It was an honour to recently welcome Dr Patricia Hunt of Imperial College London to the School of Chemistry. Dr Hunt presented her work on Ionic Liquids, giving inspiring insights into this important research field. The School of Chemistry would like to thank Dr Hunt for her visit and for delivering an excellent seminar.  

   
Insights into DNA Repair from our very own Dr Elisa Fadda

The 1st of November was a treat for all at the School of Chemistry when our very own Dr Elisa Fadda gave a research seminar entitled Control of the Genome Stability at the Molecular Level: A very close look at the DNA Repair Machinery. Dr Fadda gave a candid insight into her research conducted both here in Galway and elsewhere. The School of Chemistry would like to thank Dr Fadda for her excellent seminar and for all her hard work. 

Dr Elisa Fadda pictured before delivering her excellent seminar.

30th Oct. 2012: Dr Darren Griffith visits Galway

The School of Chemistry welcomed Dr Darren Griffith this week and thoroughly enjoyed his seminar entitled Hydroxamic Acids as Versatile Bio-ligands. Dr Griffith (pictured below) is an early career lecturer at the RSCI-Dublin. We would like to thank Darren for his excellent talk and wish him all the best in his future research.

Dr Darren Griffith of the Royal College of Surgoens in Ireland

9th Oct. 2012: The President of the RSC Visits the School of Chemistry

It was an absolute honour to welcome the President of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Professor Leslie Yellowlees to the School of Chemistry, NUI Galway. Professor Yellowlees (of the University of Edinburgh and pictured below) delivered an excellent seminar entitled Powering Ahead with Solar Energy as part of her recent and much deserved Eva Philbin Award. The School would like to thank Prof. Yellowlees for her wonderful visit. The month of October also saw the much welcomed arrivals of Prof. Gil Lee (UCD; pictured below) and Prof. Fahmi Ito (Stockholm University). Both seminars were of exceptional quality and we would like to thank both esteemed scientists for visiting us.

    

(Left to right): Prof. Paul V. Murphy (Head of School), Prof. Leslie Yellowlees and Dr Niall Geraghty. 

 

Prof. Gil Lee of University College Dublin.

Sea2Sky Festival Comes to Town

Friday the 28th of September saw the return of the Sea2Sky Festival, held at the Galway Bay Hotel. The Sea2Sky festival is a major part of the Europe wide Researchers Night initiative. Scientists from throughout Ireland descended on Galway with the aim of communicating and highlighting numerous aspects of their scientific research. The Kitchen Chemistry Crew in conjunction with the School of Chemistry once again pitched a stall comprising a myriad of demonstrations and tricks, each highlighting a facet of the wonderful world of chemistry. Staff members Dr Judith Wurmel, Dr Leigh Jones, and Ms Marian Vignoles would like to thank the Kitchen Chemistry Crew (Christine Conroy, Nicole Walshe, Eoin Larkin, Noel Byrne, Sean Meally, Lorna Moynihan and Pol MacFhionnghaile), for all their hard work and unwavering enthusiasm during an excellent day of science and fun. Below are a selection of photographs taken during the day.

 

Plenary Lecture from Donal Leech at Electrochem 2012: Electrochemistry Horizons.

The Director of the Biomolecular Electronics Research Laboratory, Dónal Leech, delivered a plenary lecture as part of an international conference hosted by TCD from the 3-4th September 2012: Electrochem 2012: Electrochemical Horizons. The lecture, titled Bioelectrocatalysis using enzyme or microbe films on electrodes, presented recent results from the laboratory exploring the use of biological catalysts for fuel cell applications.

Plenary Speakers and Local Organisers, from left,  Prof Richard Compton, University of Oxford, Prof Edmund Magner, University of Limerick, Organising Committee, Prof Robert Dryfe, University of Manchester, Organising Committee, Dr Donal Leech, NUI Galway, Prof Fraser Armstrong, University of Oxford, Prof Wolfgang Schuhmann, Ruhr-Universitat, Bochum, Germany, Prof Mike Lyons, TCD, Conference Chair, Prof Zhong-Qun Tian, Xiamen University, China and Prof Robert Forster, DCU, Organising Committee

A Sea Change for Edel!

The School of Chemistry would like to congratulate Edel Houton on successfully gaining a 3 month placement at Seagate Technologies in Derry. Seagate specialise in the development and manufacture of recording heads, which write information onto and read information from the recording disc inside a computer’s hard drive. 

Edel is currently a second year PhD student working in conjunction with Dr Leigh Jones in the field of molecular magnetism. She will implement the background knowledge gleaned from the first two years of her studies in this new role within their Process Engineering Department. We wish Edel the best of luck with her working sabbatical and with the final year of her PhD studies upon her return.

SESE 2012: Science Experience Summer Event

Thursday the 21st and Friday the 22nd of June saw the College of Science, NUI Galway hold the 2012 Science Experience Summer Event. This two day event gave 5th and 6th year students a unique opportunity to attend laboratories, workshops and research talks covering all aspects of science while also giving vital insights into the research carried out here at the University.

The School of Chemistry put on a laboratory session for 35 students from all over Ireland. Students were encouraged to carry out experiments such as the production and ignition of acetylene and the high energy combustion of gummy bears! Dr Leigh Jones and Marian VIgnoles would like to thank the Kitchen Chemistry crew ( Christine Conroy, Edel Houton, Seán Meally and Nadine McCleary) for their vital contributions without which the laboratory session would not be possible. The School would also like to thank Seán Meally for the fantastic collage of photos (see below) taken during the days events by our very own Gerry Reilly.

SESE 2012: A collage showing the Chemistry laboratory workshop in action. Photography courtesy of Gerry Reilly (School of Chemistry).  

19th April, 2012: RSC Organic Chemistry Regional Meeting and Award Symposium

This day long symposium, during which three RSC award winners were presented with their awards, was organised at the National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland. The three awardees included:

• Prof. Jonathan Williams, University of Bath. Homogeneous Catalysis Award
• Prof. Klaus Müller, F. Hoffmann La Roche, Basel. Organic Industrial Award
• Prof. Stephen Davies, University of Oxford. Perkin Prize for Organic Chemistry

Prof. Curtin, Vice President of NUI Galway, welcomed delegates to Galway and highlighted the universities >150 year history in chemistry and its ongoing commitment to chemical research and education. Dr Rees, President of the RSC’s Organic Division, made award presentations to each of the award winners prior to their plenary lectures. In addition to the award recipients, five Irish researchers also delivered lectures covering areas from asymmetric catalysis, medicinal, biological and photo chemistry. The symposium had ~100 attendees from NUI Galway and all of the other main chemical schools in Ireland along with researchers from industry and the Institutes of technology. The scientific programme was a rich and varied and sparked numerous interesting questions from the floor. Dr Rees made some concluding remarks on behalf of the RSC. The symposium concluded with a wine reception.

Photo: (left to right) Dr Rees (President of the RSC Organic Division), Prof. Williams (Univ. of Bath), Prof. Müller (Hoffmann La Roche) and Prof. Davies (University of Oxford).

Top Experts Come Together at NUI Galway to Discuss Best Way of Putting Energy to Work for Ireland

Date, 6th March: As part of  NUI Galway Energy Night experts from the fields of business, enterprise and investment, innovation and energy technology will come together to debate ’Putting Energy to Work for Ireland’. NUIG Energy Night will run from 2pm in the Bailey Allen Hall, NUI Galway, with the panel discussion commencing at 6pm. NUIG Energy Night is the only event of its kind in Ireland, and it reflects the central role the student organisers believe energy must play in the economic recovery of Ireland.  Organised by the NUI Galway’s Energy Physics and Chemistry Societies, Energy Night will also feature an Industry and Career Fair featuring some of the most prominent energy employers including Eirgrid, Cylon, Enerit, Nutherm, Shell, AER Sustainable Energy, United Technologies Research Centre Ireland, HDS energy and Kingspan Renewables.

The week prior to NUIG Energy Night, 27 February to 4 March, organisers will be running targeted CV and professional development workshops for students interested in careers in the energy sector. These will be organised in conjunction with the Career Development Centre at NUI Galway and during Engineers Week. The Industry and Career Fair will run concurrently with a Poster Showcase of the rich, cutting-edge and multi-disciplinary energy research that is currently being undertaken in Irish universities. With presenters working in areas such as biofuels, wave energy, smart buildings, smart grids and data efficiency the Career and Industry Fair and Research Showcase will provide an invaluable opportunity for students, academics and business people from around the country to network, exchange thoughts and ideas and set up new and exciting collaborations.

The centrepiece of NUIG Energy Night will take place at 6pm with the Panel Discussion, ’Putting Energy to Work for Ireland’. RTÉ’s "The Business" presenter, George Lee, will moderate the discussion that features energy executives and experts from Ireland and abroad including Gabriel D’Arcy (CEO at Bord na Móna), Norman Crowley (founder of Crowley Carbon), Brian O’Cathain (CEO of Petroceltic), Serial Entrepreneur George Polk (whom has worked with Richard Branson and George Soros) and Tom Kelly (Clean Tech Divisional Manager with Enterprise Ireland).

Speaking at the launch, Rory Monaghan (Lecturer, Energy Systems Engineering, NUI Galway) says: “The NUI Galway Energy Night is an entirely student run event with the aim of enhancing understanding, interaction and collaboration between energy stakeholders in the policy, business, technological and academic spheres as well as the public. It is an hugely exciting event as it brings local community, students, researchers, lecturers, industry representives and experts in the energy field together to discuss where we are at, what needs to be done and what can be done”

NUIG Energy Night is made possible by the generosity of sponsors, including Galway-based Enerit Ltd. and Shell, NUIG Energy Night has been awarded EXPLORE funding from NUI Galway  this funding is for projects that  build a culture of innovation on campus. NUIG Energy Night is also an Engineers Ireland Continuing Professional Development (CPD) approved event.

This event is open to members of the public. For more information visit the events website http://www.nuigenergynight.com/, or contact Sinéad Burke at directornuigenergynight.com.

NUIG Energy Night organisers and sponsors: Back Row (left to right): Dr. Rory Monaghan, Clodagh Barry (EXPLORE), Ciaran Kennedy, Daniel Coakley, Gary Brennan, Gavin Roche, Padraic O’Donohue (Engineers Ireland), Damien Kilgannon
Middle Row (L:R) Gearoid White, Neil Duffy, Mark Coughlan, Barry Flannery, Kenneth Hanley, Stephen Kearney, Kieran Somers, Ultan Burke Front Row (left to right) Denise Horan (Shell), Amber Walsh Olesen (EXPLORE), Mark White, Christine Conroy, Deirdre Ní Chonchubhair, Colm O’Rourke, Magdalena Hajdukiwicze, Sinéad Burke, Maricka Burke Keogh (Enerit). Missing from photo Michelle Hennigan, Roseann Dunne and Niall Chambers.

21st February, 2012: BOC Gases Postgraduate Awards 2011

 

Pictured (l to r): Mr. Gerry Donovan, Dr. Fawaz Aldabbagh, Padraig O’Connor, Michelle Hennigan and Dr. Alan Ryder.

NUI Galway’s School of Chemistry awarded the 2011 BOC Postgraduate Awards for outstanding PhDs to Padraig O’Connor and Michelle Hennigan. The award recognises research achievements, in terms of published work and impact, as well as, outreach, and contributions to the School and University. Mr. Gerry Donovan (Managing Director of BOC Gases) presented the awards after research seminars given to the School by Padraig on controlled/living polymerizations in supercritical carbon dioxide, and by Michelle on analysis of polymorphic mixtures.  Padraig and Michelle are in the 4th year of their PhDs supervised by Drs Fawaz Aldabbagh and Alan Ryder respectively.

Galway Science and Technology Festival, Nov. 21st 2011

A large and expectant crowd made the journey to NUI Galway last Sunday (27st Nov, 2011) for the Galway Science and Technology Festival. The School of Chemistry in conjunction with the Kitchen Chemistry initiative joined in the festivities by each providing stands brimming full of chemistry based visual displays and demonstrations. Such endeavours included highlighting the chemiluminescence of luminol as well as providing countless demonstrations of old favourites such as the non-newtonian fluid (picture below) and the ever so dramatic volcano reaction.  
All the staff at the School of Chemistry would like to thank Research Fellows Dr Elisa Fadda and Dr Jenifer Hendel and Postgraduate students Valerie Murphy and Christine Conroy (pictured below) for their hard work on the Chemistry stand. The School would also like to thank the Kitchen Chemistry representatives Nicole Walshe, Michelle Hennigan and colleagues (too many to mention!) for all their dedication in giving the public an excellent days informative entertainment. Below are a selection of photos taken during this fantastic day.      
        

                  The Kitchen Chemistry crew in all their glory!

27th October 2011

Our very own Dr Henry J. Curran (Director of the Combustion Chemistry Centre C3) was this week awarded a Doctor of Science degree-making Henry an official member of the Three Degrees! This prestigeous accolade is reserved for academics whom have made significant and sustained contributions within their field of research. Dr Curran (pictured below) certainly falls into this category as he is a major authority on the analysis and modelling of complex combustion processes. For more detailed information concerning Dr Curran’s research click here. The staff and students of the School of Chemistry would like to congratulate Henry on his much deserved award.

(Left to right): Dr James J. Browne (President of NUI Galway), Dr Henry Curran and Professor Paul Murphy (Head of the School of Chemistry). 

27th October 2011: A welcome return to an old stomping ground

The School of Chemistry was delighted to welcome Dr John McGinley this week, where he delivered a seminar entitled "Calix[4]arenes and Tetrazoles-A journey in Coordination Chemistry". Dr McGinley’s visit was (we like to think!), more pleasure than business as he was an undergraduate and PhD student here at the School. The latter qualification being achieved under the guidance of our very own Professor Patrick McArdle. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr McGinley for his time and his delivery of an excellent talk.   

Former NUI Galway Chemistry student Dr John McGinley (now Lecturer at NUI Maynooth).   

The inaugural International Masterclass on Radical Chemistry

21st-22nd October 2011: The School of Chemistry welcomed international PhD students and academics alike to Galway this week for the inaugural Masterclass in Radical Chemistry. The two day event comprised the delivery of numerous lectures and workshops centred on many facets of radical chemistry. Topics included: Supercritical Co2 in radical polymerisation (delivered by the organiser Dr Fawaz Aldabbagh); EPR interpretation of solutions ( Prof. John Walton); The synthesis, polymerisation and applications of Nitroxides ( Prof. Rebecca Braslau); Radicals in carbohydrate synthesis ( Dr Eoin Scanlon); Radicals in Combustion Chemistry ( Dr Henry Curran); Photochemical C-C bond formation ( Dr. Niall Geraghty) and Radicals in Molecular Magnetism ( Dr Leigh Jones). The masterclasses were accompanied by tutorials which were assessed towards the students structured PhD programs. The event was such a success that it is sure to become a regular on the academic calendar and for this we thank our very own Dr Fawaz Aldabbagh, whose tireless efforts made for an excellent meeting.           

Delegates from the recent International Masterclass in Radical Chemistry.  

11th October 2011: School Welcomes Professor Braslau

On Tuesday the 11th of October the School of Chemistry welcomed Professor Rebecca Braslau of the University of California Santa Cruz (USA). Professor Braslau (pictured below) is currently on a month long collaboratory visit to the School in conjunction with our very own Dr Fawaz Aldabbagh. Professor Braslau was kind enough to give a seminar on her research entitled Designed Nitroxides: Sensors and Use in the Preparation of Designed Materials. We would once again like to welcome Professor Braslau to Galway and thnak her for an excellent talk.

        

Professor Rebecca Braslau (University of California Santa Cruz)

4th October 2011

The 4th of October saw the School of Chemistry welcome Professor Hans Peter Wessel of the University of Aveiro (Portugal) to Galway. Professor Wessel (pictured below) was kind enough to deliver an excellent seminar entitled "How to find a New Drug? A MedChem View". The lecture was extremely well recieved and gave food for though for many attending researchers both within and outside the School. We would like to give our whole hearted appreciation to Professor Wessel for his timely visit.

Professor Hans Peter Wessel (University of Aveiro, Portugal)

30th Sept.-1st Oct. 2011: NUI Galway Open Days

The School of Chemistry was once again heavily involved in the first Open Day sessions of the new Academic Year. All Schools within The College of Science produced an exciting and informative Science Experience Workshop which was well recieved by the general public. The Chemistry experiments shown included CSI Galway: The Luminol Experiment, The production and ignition of Acetylene gas (no really!) and the extraction of eucalyptus oils from its leaves!. Apart from the Chemistry workshop we also provided tours of the School, while numerous members of staff manned the Chemistry stalls within the Bailey Allen Hall. The School of Chemistry would like to thank all the participants for making the day a runaway success.

   

Two young students master the art of chemiluminescence (see the blue light!) using luminol 

A student visitor tries her hand at the oscillating reaction.

Dr Peter Crowley attempts to recruit some young boffins to the School!

Thursday 29th Sept: The 2011 Eli-Lilly Undergraduate Awards

The School of Chemistry welcomed Kevin Lydon and Charlie Dolan of Eli-Lilly this week for the much anticipated annual Undergraduate Awards. The afternoon was blessed with an array of excellent speakers, each giving fascinating insights into their cutting edge PhD research. The speakers (pictured below) for the afternoon included Robert Coyle, Oliver Grant, Amandine Calvert, Jolanta Kaprinska, Roise McGovern and Lorna Moynihan. All entrants gave an excellent account of themselves however there could only be one winner. After much deliberation (and head scratching!) the winner was Oliver grant of the Woods Group (pictured below. The School of Chemistry would like to congratulate Oliver and all the other speakers for their huge efforts and substantial achievements.     

(left to right): Charlie Dolan (Eli-Lilly), Lorna Moynihan, Robert Coyle, Amandine Calvert, Roise McGovern, Kevin Lydon (Eli-Lilly), Jolanta Kaprinska and Oliver Grant.

(left to right): Kevin Lydon (Eli-Lilly), Rob Woods, Oliver Grant (overall winner), Paul Murphy (Head of School) and Charlie Dolan (Eli-Lilly).

25th September, 2011: Poster Success in Strasbourg

Amandine Calvet a PhD student in the Nanoscale Biophotonics Laboratory was awarded a best poster prize at the 12th Conference on Methods and Applications of Fluorescence: Spectroscopy, Imaging and Probes (MAF-12) held in Strasbourg, France, from 11 to 14 September, 2011.

Amandine (pictured below with her certificate) was awarded a €200 book voucher for her poster entitled:  Quantification of amino acids and vitamins in cell culture media using Excitation-Emission Matrix fluorescence spectroscopy and chemometrics.  A. Calvet and A.G. Ryder. She was one of only 6 prize recipients from a total of 227 posters presented by PhD students, postdocs, and academic staff. The School of Chemistry would like to congratulate Amandine on her success and excellent research.  

 

     Amandine Calvert

The 2011-12 Season of Invited Seminars Begins!

The 15th of September saw the School of Chemistry begin the 2011-12 Academic Seminar Series with a bang by welcoming the esteemed Professor Hans-Joachim Gabius. Professor Gabius (pictured below) of the Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich gave a seminar entitled The Magic of the Sugar Code. The School of Chemistry would like to thank Professor Gabius for his visit and his wonderful talk.

   

Professor Hans-Joachin Gabius (Ludwig-Maximilians Univ., Munich)

25th August, 2011: Chemistry Student Receives NUI Travelling Studentship

We are proud to announce that Ciara Kyne has been awarded a prestigious NUI Travelling Studentship. For details on this studentship please click here.

This grant will enable Ciara to perform part of her PhD studies in Prof. Gary Pielak's lab at Chapel Hill. Ciara also holds a Hardiman Research Scholarship awarded by NUI Galway. The School of Chemistry would like to congratulate Ciara on her fine achievements.

28th JULY, 2011:

KITCHEN CHEMISTRY LAUNCH A NEW WEEKLY NEWSPAPER COLUMN

Kitchen Chemistry, a new weekly column aimed at children of all ages, featuring in the Galway Advertiser is written by School of Chemistry postgraduate students Michelle Hennigan and Nicole Walshe, with the aim of showing how fun and easy Chemistry can be with a little help from what can be found in the kitchen. Chemistry is of great importance this year as 2011 has been designated the International Year of Chemistry (IYC2011) by UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation and IUPAC, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. IYC2011 is a worldwide celebration of the achievements of Chemistry and its contributions to the well-being of humankind. Over the coming months the column will feature how to prepare exploding volcanoes, beautiful crystals, gooey slime and fruit batteries. In addition there is a new webpage which will show how to do the experiment and will show how the experiments can be altered to create further experiments. In addition the School of Chemistry, NUI Galway has initiated a national school level Outreach program this year as part of the International Year of Chemistry 2011 (IYC2011). Postgraduate students have visited national schools in the Galway region showing how fun and interesting Chemistry can be, from Liquid Nitrogen to invisible ink. Students involved with the Outreach program include; Michelle Hennigan, Nicole Walshe, Valerie Murphy, Mark Farrell, Lorna Moynihan, Hannah Smith, Joanne Martin and Noel Byrne. For more information on Kitchen Chemistry click here.

The Science Experience Summer Event, Monday 27th June, 2011

The Science Experience Summer Event ( SESE) was recently held within the College of Science, attracting participants from all over the County Galway region. Students were able to obtain hands-on laboratory experience and glean valuable insights into the inner workings of Science both locally (at NUI Galway) and on a global level in terms of cutting edge research. The School of Chemistry in conjunction with the Kitchen Chemistry organization set up a 90 minute laboratory session where participants carried out their own experiments and observed high energy chemical reaction demonstration. On behalf of the School of Chemistry, Dr Leigh Jones would like to thank the Kitchen Chemistry crew ( Nicole Walshe, Michelle Hennigan, Noel Byrne and Eoin Larkin) for all their efforts. Below is a selection of photos captured during the Chemistry workshop. The School would also like to thank Dr Aoife Boyd (School of Microbiology) for all her hard work.     

 

24th-25th June, 2011: Success for Oliver at the 63rd Irish Universities Research Symposium.

PhD student Oliver Grant was a worthy winner of Best oral presentation in the Chemical Biology Section at the recent 63rd Annual Irish Universities Research Colloquia, held on this occasion at University College Dublin. Oliver is a PhD student working in conjunction with Prof. Robert Woods. The School of Chemistry would like to congratulate Oliver on his success. For more information on this excellent meeting please click here.    

A Memorable Visit to NUIG Chemistry for Tuam School Children

Friday the 17th of June saw the School of Chemistry welcome school children from all over the Tuam area to participate in a Chemistry Workshop. This fun laboratory session was organised in conjunction with the Kitchen Chemistry Program; an initiative independently run by a group of willing and enthusiastic Chemistry Postgraduate Students. The school children had a fantastic time being shown lots of different fun chemistry demonstrations and learnt a little Chemistry along the way. The School of Chemistry would like to thank the Kitchen Chemistry crew for their hard work and continuous support. Below are a selection of photos taken during the laboratory session which includes PhD students Michelle Hennigan,  Edel Houton, Mary Lohan and Eoin Larkin respectively. Not pictured are fellow Kitchen Chemistry members Nicole Walshe and  Noel Byrne.    

Chemistry Captures the Imagination of School Children Nationwide

Monday, 13th June 2011: Over 100 school children from the County Galway area descended on the School of Chemistry to showcase their  Capturing Chemistry entries. Although judging proved extremely difficult, the winners in each class were awarded prizes while every entrant received a certificate and some well deserved sweets! As well as the prize giving the children were shown some fun and simple Chemistry experiments through our Kitchen Chemistry initiative. The School of Chemistry would like to thank Judy Buckley (pictured above (top right centre) along with all category winners alongside Prof. Paul Murphy (far left) and Dr Peter Crowley (top left centre)) for all her efforts along with all staff and postgraduates involved in this hugely popular and successful event. The overall winners along with their prize winning entries are given below:

Cathal Buckley: 1st class, Scoil Naisiunta, Oughterard.

Tara Larkin: 2nd class, Scoil Naisiunta, Oughterard.

Ava Daly: 3rd class, Scoil Naisiunta, Oughterard.

Tara Gibney: 6th class, Scoil Naisiunta, Oughterard.

 

Declan Kelly: 1st class, Scoil Bríde, Shantalla.

 

Bernard Mangan: 5th class, Scoil Bríde, Shantalla.

Emma Callinan: 5th class, Claregalway national school.

Emma Finneran: 6th class, Claregalway national school.

Rachel Millea: 5th class, Wicklow Montessori school.

Worldwide recognition for Professor Liam Spillane  

It has recently been revealed that a review article published in 1980 by our very own Professor Liam Spillane discussing Sulfamic acid and its N-substituted derivatives was one of the top most read articles (currently ranked No 1 with a staggering 27,729 downloads to date!) from the ACS journal Chemical Reviews during the last 12 months. The School of Chemistry would like to congratulate Professor Spillane on his outstanding and much heralded work.   

Professor Liam Spillane.

June 2nd-3rd: School of Chemistry holds UCLAS Conference

The School of Chemistry were thrilled to host this year’s UCLAS ( University Chemical Laboratory Adminstrators and Superintendents) conference which took place for the first time outside the UK. Delegates from a myriad of universities were in attandance including Bath, Manchester, Belfast, Strathclyde, Trinity, UCD, DCU, Northampton, Limerick, Durham, Cork, London, Glasgow, Sheffield and Huddersfield. This year was also the first time seven Universities from Ireland were represented at the UCLAS meeting together with their British colleagues. In parallel with the meeting, an exhibition of antiquated laboratory equipment was showcased with exquisit detail. The School of Chemistry would like to thank its very own Chief Technical Officer Dermot McGrath  for organising this excellent conference that was enjoyed by all. We would also like to thank our Head of School, Professor Paul Murphy for opening this special event.  

Chief Technical Officer and organiser of UCLAS 2011, Dermot Mc Grath (6th from the left) is pictured with some of the delegates.

Success at Eirelec 2011 for Chemistry PhD Student

The School of Chemistry would like to congratulate Saravanan Rengaraj of the Biomolecular Electronics Research Laboratory (pictured below), for his first prize in the poster competition at the recent Eirelec’11: Electrochemistry the Future? Conference held in Adare (Co. Limerick). Saravanan is a PhD student working in conjunction with Dr Donal Leech: Director of the Biomolecular Electronics Research Laboratory (also pictured below). Well done Saro!

 

PhD student and award winner Saravanan Rengaraj.

 

Dr. Donal Leech receiving the award from Prof. Robert Forster (DCU), on behalf of Saravanan Rengaraj.

The School of Chemistry welcome PCH students

The School of Chemistry welcomed 18 junior certificate students from Presentation College Headford on Monday the 16th May 2011. The students were treated to an hour long tour of the School conducted by Drs Leigh Jones (pictured below), Elisa Fadda and Alan Ryder. All aspects of the School were discussed including undergraduate teaching and active research much to the immense interest of our curious guests. The School would like to thank their teacher Mrs Marie Healy for organising this very enjoyable afternoon and we hope to see many (if not all!) of these students enrolled at NUIG in a few years’ time.     

 

Junior Certficate students representing Presentation College Headford

A Busy April for Seminars and Special Guests!

It was a very busy April in terms of research seminars in the School. The 12th of April saw the dissemination of an excellent body of work provided by Dr Matt Clarke (pictured below) of The University of St Andrews. Matt’s seminar entitled “Sensible, Silly and Serendipitous Approaches to Catalytic Asymmetric Synthesis” show pieced some of his extraordinary research which resulted in the 2010 RSC Hickinbottom Award. The School of Chemistry would like to thank Matt for his excellent presentation.

               Dr Matt Clarke of The University of St Andrews

The 14th of April was a special day for the School as we welcomed Professor Frank Hegarty (FICI) of University College Dublin. Prof. Hegarty (pictured below) was here to deliver his Boyle-Higgins Award Lecture entitled “A Journey Through Organic Chemistry”, much to the delight of the full to capacity Dillon theatre. We congratulate Professor Hegarty for his much deserved award and thank him for presenting his excellent seminar. The 28th of April saw Dr Deniz Tasdemir (pictured below) of the London School of Pharmacy deliver her excellent seminar entitled “Exploiting Natural Products Against Infectious Diseases: Challenges and Opportunities”. The School of Chemistry would like to congratulate Dr Tasdemir for her excellent work and for her much welcomed visit. 

        Professor Frank Hegarty (FICI) of University College Dublin

Dr Deniz Tasdemir (London School of Pharmacy)

1st April 2011

No, this is not an April Fool’s Prank. NUI Galway really did welcome President Mary McAleese to Galway on the 1st of April. President McAleese was present to open the new NUI Galway Prostate Cancer Screening Institute. President McAleese then went on to receive the President's medal from the Literary and Debating Society at the college. After delivering her rousing speech held in the Kirwan Theatre, President McAleese along with her husband Dr Martin McAleese and our own President Dr James J. Browne, found themselves in the School of Chemistry and were soon posing for photographs with some of our plucky and very patient PhD students! 

 

A group of Chemistry PhD students meet President McAleese and Dr Martin McAleese. Also pictured is NUI Galway President Dr James J. Browne.

Seminar Speakers in March 2011

The first week in March saw two speakers grace the School of Chemistry in the form of Prof. Jose Garcia Laureiro (pictured below) of the University of Zaragoza (seminar entitled "Surface Confinement Effects In Enantioselective Catalysis: Facts, Models and Ligand Design") and Dr Claudia Blindauer (2nd picture below) of the University of Warwick, whose seminar detailed the utilisation of Proteins as Metal Filters for the discrimination between toxic Cadmium and essential Zinc.

Our final speaker for the month of March was Professor Pavel Matousek of the Central Laser Facility at the acclaimed Rutherford Appleton Laboratory situated in Oxfordshire, England. Professor Matousek gave an insightful seminar concerning the "Noninvasive Probing of Turbid Samples Using Spatially Offset and Transmission Raman Spectroscopy". The School of Chemistry would like to thank all our speakers for their wonderfully presented seminars and congratulate them on their work. 

Professor Mautosek pictured before delivering his seminar.

17th February 2011

On the 17th of February the School of Chemistry welcomed the esteemed Professor Jan van Hest of Radboud University Nijmegen (pictured below). Professor van Hest introduced us to his world class research on using Polymersomes as Artificial Organelles. We would once again like to thank Professor van Hest for visiting us here in Galway and congratulate him on his work.

                                Professor Jan van Hest

30th November 2010

Eli Lilly Prizes in Chemistry

A number of prizes were recently awarded by Eli Lilly at a Chemistry Research Symposium organised by the School of Chemistry. Mr Martin Sweeney (pictured below), currently in 2nd Science and studying Chemistry, was awarded the Eli Lilly prize for 1st place in the 1st Science Examination in Chemistry in 2009/10 academic year.

 

(left to right) Kevin Lydon (Eli Lilly), Martin Sweeney (winner first year Eli Lilly Chemistry prize), Charlie Dolan (Eli Lilly).

Eli Lilly also sponsored a competition for 3rd year PhD students in the School of Chemistry. Five PhD students gave oral presentations on their research in the competition for the Postgraduate Prize. They were Mary Teresa Lohan, Michelle Hennigan, Padraig O’Connor, Eamonn Joyce and Saravanan Rengaraj (pictured below). All of the postgraduates presenting were commended on the standard of their presentations and the breadth and quality of their research. The topics included polymer synthesis in supercritical carbon dioxide, solid state pharmaceuticals and analysis, organic synthesis, photochemistry and fuel cell development. Mr Eamonn Joyce was awarded 1st place for his lecture on the synthesis of new heterocyclic compounds with potential as anti-tumour agents. Mr Joyce is supervised by Dr. Fawaz Aldabbagh.

(Front row from left to right) Michelle Hennigan; Eamonn Joyce (winner); Mary Lohan, Charlie Dolan (Eli Lilly). (Back row from left to right) Padraig O’Connor, Paul Murphy (Head, School of Chemistry); Kevin Lydon (Eli Lilly); Saravanan Rengaraj.

The symposium also included a lecture by Professor John Moses from the University of Nottingham (pictured below) who received the 2010 Eli Lilly UK/ROI Young Lecturer Award.  

 

Left to right: Prof. Paul Murphy, Kevin Lydon (Eli Lilly), Prof. John Moses (Univ. of Nottingham) and Charlie Dolan (Eli Lilly). 

Professor Paul Murphy, Head of the School of Chemistry and the Registrar and Deputy President Professor Jim Ward thanked Eli Lilly for their support of both the undergraduate and postgraduate awards at NUI Galway. Professor Ward opened the Symposium and in his address stressed the importance of partnerships between the University and Irish Industry.

25th November 2010

The School of Chemistry took great delight in welcoming Dr Karen C Waldron (pictured below) to Galway on the 25th November 2010, to present her seminar entitled "Determination of the Enzymatically- Induced Deacetylation Patterns in Chitosan Oligosaccharides by Capillary Electrophoresis-Laser Induced Fluorescence and Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry”. Dr Waldron resides at the University of Montreal and was in Galway as a special guest of our very own Dr Donal Leech. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr Waldron for her efforts and wish her well in all her future endeavours.    

23rd November 2010

New Bioanalytical Research Project at the School of Chemistry 

A research team headed by Dr Alan Ryder is embarking on a research project with the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies. Johnson & Johnson and The National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT) are jointly investing in a Bioanalytical Research Project at the Nanoscale Biophotonics Laboratory (NBL) situated at the School of Chemistry, NUI Galway. The investment is part of the Government initiative to attract strategically important research and development to Ireland.
The NBL is an interdisciplinary research group with a primary focus involving the development of new photonics and chemometrics based analytical methods for industry and academia. Dr Ryder, in conjunction with a team of two researchers ( Dr. Boyan Li and Ms. Bridget Kissane; pictured below with Dr Ryder) in the NBL, will develop novel mathematical and spectroscopic techniques for the analysis of various complex biogenic materials.
It is envisioned the outcome of this research will support greater understanding and control of biopharmaceutical manufacturing processes and aid the industry to satisfy Quality by Design and design space expectations of regulatory agencies. Further information regarding this progressive project can be found here.  For more information regarding the Nanoscale Biophotonics Laboratory please click here.

Left to right: Ms Bridget Kissane, Dr Alan Ryder and Dr Boyan Li

21st November 2010

Galway Science and Technology Festival, NUI Galway 

A staggering crowd of 20,000 made the trip to NUI Galway last Sunday (21st Nov) for the 2010 Galway Science and Technology Festival; the first to be held at NUI Galway and undoubtedly no the last. The School of Chemistry joined in the festivities by providing a stand jam packed full of chemistry based visual displays such as the chemiluminescence of luminol  and the production of home-made lava lamps, aswell as providing countless demonstrations of old favourites such as the non-newtonian fluid (picture below) and the ever so dramatic volcano reaction.  Drs Leigh Jones and Peter Crowley would like to thank Ms Valerie Murphy and Ms Christine Conroy (pictured below) for their hard work in setting up all the aforementioned experiments and their dedication in ensuring a fun time was had by all. Ms’ Murphy and Conroy are currently in their 2nd year of their PhD studies under the guidance of Prof. Robert Woods and Dr Henry Curran respectively. Further information on this outstanding day of fun and fact can be found on the Galway Chem Facebook page here.

Valerie Murphy (left) and Christine Conroy (right) in action on the School of Chemistry stall 

  

The non-newtonian fluid (a.k.a cornflour and water) is a big hit as always.

 

18th November 2010 

The 18th of November saw the welcome arrival of Dr Peter Kenny (formerly of Astra Zeneca before recently retiring). Dr Kenny (pictured below) described his research in the area of computational chemistry with a seminar entitled "Hydrogen Bonding and Molecular Design". We would like to once again thank Peter for his stimulating presentation and wish him well for the future.

   

22nd October 2010

The School of Chemistry were fortunate enough to welcome Professor Martin Albrecht (below) of the School of Chemistry, University College Dublin on the 22nd of October 2010. Professor Albrecht (an ERC Fellow) showcased his world class research with a presentation entitled “New (catalytic) applications with normal and abnormal carbene metal complexes”. The School of Chemistry would like to congratulate Professor Albrecht on his scientific endeavours and thank him kindly for his visit.

14th October 2010

The School of Chemistry was delighted to welcome Dr Stephen Moggach (below) to Galway on the 14th October, 2010. Dr Moggach is an esteemed Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and is situated at the School of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh. His research seminar entitled “Putting the squeeze on Porous Materials” detailed his crystallographic studies on structural changes of Metal Organic Frameworks when placed under hydrostatic pressure. The School of Chemistry would like to thank Stephen for an excellent seminar and wish him all the best for the future.

5th October 2010

The staff and students at the School of Chemistry were privileged to welcome Dr Rainer Ebel of the School of Chemistry at the University of Aberdeen. Dr Ebel (pictured below) gave a seminar entitled Biodiscovery from Marine and Extremophilic Organisms detailing the extraction and subsequent structural elucidation of natural products from marine life towards biological activity testing. We would once again like to thank Dr Ebel for his insightful seminar.      

July 2010

Adjunct NUIG professor Jim Rusling appears on NBC

National recognition in the USA on NBC, for research advances in the group of Prof. Jim Rusling on the detection of biomarkers for early diagnosis of cancer. Prof. Rusling, based at the University of Connecticut is adjunct professor at the School of Chemistry NUI Galway, following his SFI Walton-funded visit in 2008-2009. Jim is a regular visitor to Galway and maintains a research collaboration with the Biomolecular Electronics Research Laboratory of Dr. D. Leech ( Link). For example, second year PhD student in BERL, Saro, has just returned from a two month visit to Jim’s group at the UConn.

To see the NBC news piece please click on the link below:

Link

July 2010

Poster Award for Chemistry PhD student 

The School would like to congratulate Mr Peter O’Conghaile (below) for his recent Best Overall Poster award (entitled ’ Enzymatic Fuel Cells’) at the recent 62nd Irish Universities Chemistry Research Colloquium held at Queen’s University Belfast on July 2nd 2010. Peter is currently entering his 2nd year of his PhD studies under the supervision of Dr Donal Leech. Well done Peter.

June 2010

Senior Scientist Dr. Paul Kavanagh was recently awarded Best Oral Presentation for his presentation titled From Biosensors to Biopower at the recent joint ECI-MRI research day held on the 17th of June 2010. Paul is pictured below (left) receiving his certificate from Sean Duke (right); science writer, communicator and editor of Science Spin magazine. Paul is currently working in conjunction with Dr Donal Leech. The School of Chemistry would like to congratulate Paul on his significant achievement.

May 2010: Angiokem COST Workshop

On Saturday May 8th 2010, an elite group of international scientists convened at an Angiokem COST Workshop. This COST Action Angiokem focuses on networking of interdisciplinary oriented chemical and biological researchers who are actively involved in rational designing and development of small organic compounds with anti-angiogenic properties. Excessive or insufficient angiogenesis (new blood vessel formation) is connected with many human diseases, including cancer. Pathological angiogenesis is important in tumour growth and metastasis and inhibitors have potential as new drugs. Professor Paul Murphy of the School of Chemistry, is a member of the management committee for this COST Action. The workshop took place in Malahide, Dublin. Over thirty European scientists (pictured below) participated in the meeting and present results of their recent research, including results of collaborative research between scientific members of the COST action. 

The COST actions promote collaboration by funding workshops, conferences, summer schools and short term scientific missions Ms Stefania Caufin visited NUI Galway from the laboratory of Professor Daniele Passarella (Universita degli Studi di Milano, Italy), where she is currently working on the synthesis of new bifunctional inhibitors of angiogenesis. Mr Stephen Barron visited Professor Passarella’s laboratory in Milan for six weeks.  Prof Passarella is the chair of the COST action. 

January 2010

New COST Action CM0901

A new COST Action, "Detailed Chemical Kinetic Models for Cleaner Combustion", had its inaugural meeting in Brussels on the 28-29th January 2010.  Dr Henry Curran is the lead co-ordinator of the WG2 workprogramme and Emeritus Professor John Simmie was elected Vice-Chair of the Management Committee.  The Action, one of the very few ever initiated from Ireland, brings together researchers in some 19 countries in the EU and neighbouring states to discuss matters of common interest, to organize training schools and to facilitate the exchange of early-stage researchers

November 2009

Sunday 22^rd November 2009.
Galway Science Fair, Leisureland, Galway

Last Sunday saw the School of Chemistry once again represented at the annual Galway Science Fair held at Leisureland, Galway. Dr.s Leigh Jones and Peter Crowley would on the behalf of the School of Chemistry like to thank Christine Conroy and Valerie Murphy for all their hard work in preparing and demonstrating to the public a wide variety of fun chemical tricks and observations. These included the growing of crystals and the simple preparation of erupting volcanoes, dancing lentils, home made lava lamps and non-Newtonian fluids (or corn flour water!). Christine and Valerie are first year PhD students under the supervision Dr Henry Curran and Prof. Rob Woods respectively. Thanks to their hard work and dedication the School of Chemistry stand was once again one of the most popular with children and parents alike

JULY 2009

Research Projects at the School of Chemistry Secure SFI Funding

Professor Robert Woods,
Virtual Glycan Array Development and Carbohydrate Receptor Engineering
Carbohydrates are highly abundant, simple organic compounds and are the building blocks of sugars and starches. Professor Woods aims to use a combination of computer modeling and experimental approaches to design new carbohydrate-based drug therapies and diagnostic agents. The ultimate goal of this research is to develop novel anti-viral medications for treatment of influenza and diagnostics for diseases, such as cancer and diabetes.

Dr Henry Curran
Combustion Chemistry for Sustainable Energy and Energy Efficient Technologies.
Under the Kyoto Protocol, Ireland agreed to limit its Greenhouse Gas emissions to 13% above 1990 levels by 2008-2012. Emissions from transport continue to be the main source of growth in GHG levels in Ireland. Dr Curran will examine how biofuels burn which will assist in making choices on potentially new fuels for energy efficient combustion. The research also aims to develop technologies that will enable safe and reliable gas turbine operation (for power and heat generation) with undiluted syngas.

 

Pictured at the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) funding announcement were (l-r): Professor Pat Fottrell, Chairman, SFI; Dr Henry Curran, NUI Galway; Professor Robert Woods, NUI Galway; Conor Lenihan T.D., Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation; Professor Corrado Santocanale, NUI Galway; and Professor Stephen Simpson, Director, Life Sciences, SFI.

June 2009

Friday 19th June - Professor J. Simmie has been appointed to the Management Committee of a new COST action (CM0901) entitled "Detailed Chemical Kinetic Models for Cleaner Combustion" which is to run until May 2013.  COST is an intergovernmental framework for European Co-operation in Science and Technology, allowing the coordination of nationally-funded research on a European level.  COST, which is run by the European Science Foundation,  contributes to reducing the fragmentation in European research investments and to opening the European Research Area to co-operation worldwide.

April 2009

Wednesday 1st April - Dr. Donal Leech was awarded an RSC JWT Jones Travelling Fellowship to visit the research group of Professor Alison Downard at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zeland. Picture shows the combined research groups of Alison Downard, Bryce Williamson and Vladimir Golovko at the top of 919m Mt Herbert close to Christchurch. The keen-eyed will spot Donal's, Jack and Eabha, who tramped up the mountain (4 year old Riona remained safe with Elaine back in Christchurch).
 

Thursday 24th April - NUI Galway Chemistry obtained a silver medal in German CHE Excellence Awards for 2008 in the Marie Curie category (number of projects in the Marie Curie research promotion programme of the EU). These projects were Marie Curie Transfer of Knowledge awards to Dr. D. Leech (Microgen) and to Professor J. Simmie (Burnquest) and Marie Curie Host Development Fellowships to Professor J. Simmie.

Wednesday 22nd April - Congratulations to the following Students who were awarded EMBARK Postgraduate Scholarships (IRCSET)

Student	Supervisor
Nelly Berg	Dr. Leigh Jones
Noel Byrne	Dr. Andrea Erxleben
Amandine Calvet	Dr. Alan Ryder
Michelle McKinney	Professor Paul Murphy
Seán Meally	Dr. Leigh Jones
Lorna Moynihan	Professor Paul Murphy

 
Wednesday 8th April - Dr. Fawaz Aldabbagh has been admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK).

January 2009

Monday 19th January - Emeritus professor John Simmie, a researcher in the Combustion Chemistry Centre, has been invited by the US Department of Energy to visit Washington DC in February 2009 and assist in the evaluation of a new series of funding initiatives – Energy Frontier Research Centers.
These multi-million dollar EFRCs have been designed by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences to bring together the skills and talents of multiple investigators to enable research of a scope and complexity, over a period of five years, not otherwise possible by individuals or small groups.  Over 260 applications involving 385 institutions were received for a total requested budget of nearly five billion dollars.
The topical areas cover a broad range including solar, catalysis, electrical energy storage, biofuels, geosciences, hydrogen, combustion, nuclear materials and materials for extreme environments, superconductivity, solid state lightning and cross-cutting areas.  All of the applications must address one or more of the grand challenges identified in the BESAC report “Basic Energy Needs to Assure a Secure Energy Future”.
An indication of the high priority that the incoming Obama administration has placed on energy research may be seen in the recent appointment of Nobel-laureate Steven Chu to head up the Department of Energy.

Thursday 1st January - Professor P. McArdle has been apponted to a IUPAC task group. The group's project is entitled:: Towards a comprehensive definition of oxidation state. http://www.iupac.org/web/ins/2008-040-1-200

December 2008

Tuesday 2nd December- Dr. Eoin Scanlan from Trinity College, Dublin presented a lecture entitled "Strategies for the Synthesis of Glycotherapeutics".

Monday 1st December- At a short symposium on Tin Chemistry Professor Keith Pannell, Univerity of Texas El Paso, presented a lecture on "Transition metal derivatives of organotin hydrides: Not so simple"  and Dr. James McManus, NUI, Galway NUI, Galway described “Dissolution and Doping of Tin Oxide”. Professor Pannell has edited a major tome on Tin Chemistry which he has dedicated to the memory of the late Professor Des Cunningham who had been involved in research on Tin Chemistry at NUI, Galway.  

The picture shows Professor Pannell presenting a copy of the book on Tin Chemistry to Professor Cunningham's wife Patsy.

Galway Science Fair, Leisureland, Galway
Sunday 23^rd November- The School of Chemistry was once again represented at the annual Galway Science Fair held at Leisureland, Galway. The School of Chemistry stand was extremely popular with children and adults alike with the majority leaving with a piece of slime and a recipe for a homemade volcano!

On behalf of the School of Chemistry Drs’ Leigh Jones, Peter Crowley and Henry Curran would like to thank Nicole Walshe, Fergal Coleman and Dr Karen Rafferty (University of Leeds, UK) for all their efforts last Sunday. Nicole and Fergal are second year PhD students under the supervision of Dr Alan Ryder and Dr Andrea Erxleben respectively. Their enthusiasm and hard work ensured that the children of Galway left with smiles on their faces and (hopefully) a memory of how much fun chemistry can be. 
    
Taking slime orders at the Galway Science Fair

October 2008

1st October - The School of Chemistry welcomes Prof. Jim Rusling from the University of Connecticut as a Science Foundation Ireland Walton Visiting Professor for 2008-2009. Jim will undertake research in collaboration with the Biomolecular Electronics Research Laboratory in the School, led by Dr. Dónal Leech, and other national and international collaborators on developing prototype microfluidic bioelectronic arrays for detection of cancer biomarkers and stem cell proteins. Additional research will focus on combining the expertise of the Rusling group on nanoparticle and nanostructured surfaces, with bioelectrocatalytic electron transfer expertise in the Leech group to produce bioelectronic device (such as biofuel cell and biosensor) prototypes.

Link to Professor Rusling's research group 

September 2008

13th September - Karen Fahey won First Prize at the Poster Competition (out of 215 entries) at the 23rd European Colloquium on Heterocyclic Chemistry, Antwerp, Belgium.
Karen is a second year PhD student working under the direction of Dr. Fawaz Aldabbagh.

1st September- Professor Paul Murphy is appointed Head of School

August 2008

7th August- The Work of the Combustion Research Group led by Dr. Henry Curran has been described in to-days Irish Times

June 2008

17th June - Eight School of Chemistry post-graduate students were conferred with Ph.D. degrees. Pictured here are Dr. Stephen Dooley, Dr. Henry Curran (supervisor) and Dr. Wayne Metcalfe. Both Stephen and Wayne researched the combustion of alternative biofuels in Galway and both have been hired as post-doctoral researchers at Princeton University.  

 

13th June - Mairead Crushell received an award for the best inorganic chemistry oral presentation at the 60th Irish Universities Chemistry Research Colloquium which took place in University College Cork.

May 2008

21st May - Dr. Aoife Lyons who recently completed a Ph.D. in chemistry has also become an experienced sailor.

An article in the Galway Independent ( http://www.galwayindependent.com/) describes a recent trans-atlantic trip of Aoife's  .

20th May - Dr. Fawaz Aldabbagh has been awarded €189,910 by the Science Foundation Ireland, Research Frontiers Programme (RFP) to support a project entitled, “Clean Controlled Synthesis of Stimuli-Sensitive Materials Using Supercritical Carbon Dioxide”.

The project will involve collaborations with Drs W. M. Carroll and Y. Rochev and Prof. P. B. Zetterlund and M. Okubo of NUI, Galway and Kobe University (Japan) respectively.
This RFP award is "two in a row" for by Dr. Aldabbagh as Principal Investigator since he was also successful in last years RFP competition.

20th May Dr. Dónal Leech has been awarded €189,450 by the Science Foundation Ireland, Research Frontiers Programme (RFP) to support a project entitled, “Metals in the Marine Environment”, a collaboration between the Biomolecular Electronics Research Laboratory of Dr. Leech and researchers in Earth & Ocean Sciences (Rachel Cave), Botany (Dagmar Stengel), Waterford IT (Peter McLoughlin) and the Universities of Liverpool (Stan van der Berg) and Plymouth (Eric Actherberg). The research focuses on the development, validation and deployment of autonomous electrochemical instrumentation for analysis of metals in the marine environment.

 March 2008

15th March - Congratulations to Professor Liam Spillane on his election to membership of the Royal Irish Academy.

Professor Spillane is the third member of the School of Chemistry to be elected to the Academy.

March 2008

6th March - At the 25^th Annual NUI, Galway Sports awards Shane Hayes a 3^rd year Chemistry student and captain of the NUI, Galway Handball Team, accepted a team award on behalf of the team from the new President of NUI Galway, Jim Browne, in his first official function as President.

December 2007

15th December - Science Foundation Ireland have awarded Dr. Alan Ryder and the Nanoscale Biophotonics Laboratory funding to acquire a Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence (TIRF) Microscope. This TIRF microscope will allow the group and its collaborators to study single molecule events on surfaces, protein-surface interactions, and the surfaces of cell membranes.

13th December - Mr. Micheál Martin TD, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, today announced details of the first awards under the Science Foundation Ireland Stokes Professorship and Lectureship Programme. Dr. Andrea Erxleben has been awarded a Lectureship in Medicinal Chemistry at NUI, Galway.

10th December - Two chemistry students have recently achieved sporting honours.
David Kenny, the Offaly hurler (home club: Belmont), has received a NUI, Galway Sports scholarship for Hurling.
Colm Power (Rugby Club) has been appointed Clubs Captain for the Students Union.
David is in 4th year Chemistry and Colm is in 3rd year Chemistry.

November 2007

22nd Novermer 2007:- Michael Martin, Minister for Enterprise Trade & Employment presented the late Professor Des Cunningham and Dr. James McManus with an Enterprise Ireland award in recognition of their licensing agreement with Theta Chemicals for the Commercialization Fund project on the Production of Transparent and Conducting Metal Oxide Films for Industrial Applications. Professor Cunningham's wife Patsy accepted the award on his behalf.

13^th November 2007:- Michael Martin, Minister for Enterprise Trade & Employment has announced the funding by SFI of a Solid State Pharmaceuticals Cluster (Total €6.9 million) which involves 5 Universities and 9 Pharmaceutical companies. 

The lead PI is Professor B K Hodnett of the University of Limerick and the other PIs are;
Prof. Owen Corrigan TCD
Dr. Brian Glennon UCD
Prof. Patrick McArdle, NUIG
Dr. Humphrey Moynihan, UCC

The Industry Partners are;
Janssen Pharmaceutical Ltd., Little Island Cork,
Schering Plough (Avonda Company), Rathdrum Co Wicklow,
Eli Lilly, Dunderrow, Co Cork,
Glaxo Smith Kline, Carrigaline Co Cork,
Merck Sharpe & Dohme, Ballydine, Clonmel, Co. Tipperarary,
Roche Ireland, Clarecastle, Co. Clare,
Pfizer, Loughbeg, Ringaskiddy, Co. Cork,
Covidien, Damastown,  Dublin,
Helsinn Chemicals Ireland Ltd., Damastown, Mulhuddart, Dublin.

The NUI, Galway group will develop projects involving amorphous content analysis, polymorph analysis and crystal morphology prediction.

September 2007

Congratulations to Mark Hanniffy B.Sc. on his success in the recent Department of Foreign Affairs (Third Secretary) competition. Mark, who has just completed work for his Ph.D. under the supervision of Professor Butler, was placed first in the four stage selection process.

July 2007

ICCOC-GTL12 The 12th International Conference on the Chemistry of Germanium Tin and Lead will take place in NUI, Galway from the 9th to the 13th of July 2007
 

May 2007

Dr. Fawaz Aldabbagh has been awarded the Canon Foundation in Europe 2007 Research Fellowship. The Canon Foundation is active in the promotion of international cultural and scientific relations between Europe and Japan.
Dr. Aldabbagh will work at Kobe University (Sister University of NUI, Galway) on a collaborative project with Prof. Masayoshi Okubo entitled; “Controlled Synthesis of Smart Polymers in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide”

April 2007

Ronan McHale (3rd Year Chemistry Postgraduate) was a prizewinner at the Science Faculty Research Day Poster Competition held on the 17th of April in NUI, Galway.
His poster was entitled , “Nitroxide-Mediated Controlled/Living Dispersion and Precipitation Polymerizations in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide”.

Public Lecture
An Cumann Ceimice presents
Professor Richard Schmidt, University of Konstanz, Germany, who will give a lecture entitled; Carbohydrate Chips
Tuesday April 3rd at 4 pm in the Dillon Lecture Theatre

March 2007

Travel Award
Liz O’Donovan (2nd Year Postgraduate) has been awarded a Cancer Research Ireland Oncology Scholar Travel Grant 2007 to attend Frontiers in CNS & Oncology Medicinal Chemistry, Siena, Italy.

February 2007

Public Lecture
An Cumann Ceimice welcomes
Dr. Andrea Erxleben
to NUI, Galway
who will give a lecture entitled
Coordination Behaviour of Molybdocene Dichloride Towards Biomolecules
13th February 2007 at 4:00pm Dillon Theatre, NUI, Galway

November 2006

Public Lecture

An Cumann Ceimice Presents
Combustion of Sustainable Fuels:A Chemical Kinetic Perspective
Dr. Philippe Dagaut, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Orleans, France.

Tuesday 21st November at 4.00pm, Dillion Theatre, NUI, Galway
__________________________________________________

Public Lecture

The Institute of Chemistry of Ireland in Association with An Cumann Ceimice Presents
The REACH Chemical Regulation
Registration Evaluation and Authorisation of CHemicals
Professor Michael J. Hynes, B.Sc., Ph.D, D.Sc, CChem, FRSC
National University of Ireland Galway

Thursday 16th November at 8:00pm, Dillon Theatre, NUI Galway
__________________________________________________

June 2006

The Biomolecular Electronics Research Laboratory of the Department of Chemistry, headed by Dr. Dónal Leech has secured funding of €2,800,000 from the European Commission for a Specific Targeted Research Project (STREP) titled " BIO-MEDNANO: Integrating enzymes, mediators and nanostructures to provide bio-powered bio-electrochemical sensing systems". The research project will be co-ordinated by Dr. Leech, and provides funding of €395,950 to his research group. The project is a collaboration between the Galway Laboratory and research groups in VTT Biotechnology, Finland, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Southampton, Abo Akademi in Finland, the University of Rome and a Czech company, BVT Technologies.

The project focuses on research at the frontiers of knowledge of enzymes, mediators, surfaces and immobilisation strategies aimed at improving enzymatic electron transfer reactions for application towards integrated bio-powered biosensing systems for diagnosis and healthcare. Such improvements will be provided by: screening for novel enzymes; modification of enzymes; design of novel nano-structured scaffolds for enzyme immobilisation, to provide devices with improved stability and electron transfer efficiency (sensitivity and/or power output).

June 2006

The Department of Chemistry was delighted to award medals to undergraduate students who attained top marks in the individual course modules in Chemistry. The medallists, each of whom was awarded a specially designed and engraved gold medal, are:

Una Scully [2nd Science: Organic & Physical Chemistry
Sandra Watson[2nd Science: Computers in Chemistry]
Louise Robins [3rd Science: Inorganic Chemistry]
Gearóid Ó Máille [3rd Science: Molecular Structure Determination]
Edward Lynch [3rd Science: Analytical and Industrial Chemistry]
John Greaney [Final year: Organic, Inorganic & Physical hemistry]
Ciara Gillespie [Final year: Problem Solving in Chemistry]

The Department will graduate 32 B. Sc. Honours students in 2006.

Febuary 2006

At the Collingwood Cup 2006, held in Coleraine University, Professor Liam Spillane was honoured by the IUFU. The Spillane Cup was introduced to the competition to recognise Professor Spillane’s huge contribution to university soccer during his time as President of the IUFU (1985-1997) and Chairperson of NUI Galway Soccer Club (1982-1999).

January 2006

Professor Des Cunningham and Dr. Dónal Leech have secured funding of €88,400 from Enterprise Ireland for a project titled 'Transparent and Conducting Metal Oxide Based Films for Industrial Applications using a New Revolutionary Chemical Technology'. The goal of the research project is to establish the optimum conditions necessary for the fabrication of commercially attractive transparent and conducting films based on chemical technology developed, and protected, by Prof. Cunningham's research group.

 

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