September CÚRAM Researcher Awarded Prestigious Julia Polak Award at ESB 2023
CÚRAM Researcher Awarded Prestigious Julia Polak Award at ESB 2023
CÚRAM postdoctoral researcher Dr Kieran Joyce has been awarded the Julia Polak European Doctorate Award 2023 by the European Society for Biomaterials (ESB) and was presented with this award at the General Assembly of the ESB conference to be held from 4-8 September 2023 in Davos. He is the latest CÚRAM graduate to receive this acknowledgement, following in the footsteps of nine earlier CÚRAM alumni.
The award is given by the ESB council and presented annually at the conference event. Candidates nominated for the award need to demonstrate receipt of a high standard of research education and training at a European level in Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering and that they are able to produce scientific results deserving of recognition by being published and accepted in high-quality journals and conferences.
To this end, candidates will have had to spend at least one month of research work in a country outside the country of their home institution, have produced at least two peer-reviewed international publications as the first author and have participated at least twice at an international scientific meeting as presenting author, during their PhD.
Dr Joyce’s PhD research focused on glycosylation in human intervertebral disc degeneration and the development of glyco-functionalised biomaterials. Over the course of his PhD he has published in several prestigious journals, including Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy, Tissue Engineering Part B and European Cells and Materials. Dr Joyce was supervised by Professor Abhay Pandit, Scientific Director at CÚRAM, the SFI-funded Research Centre for Medical Devices at University of Galway.
"It is very gratifying for any researcher to have their work recognised this way. I’m extremely proud that CÚRAM graduates continue to be acknowledged for the quality of their training and research outputs. All of our researchers put extraordinary amounts of energy, time and effort into their work, and I'd like to congratulate Kieran on this award, which he richly deserves," said Prof Pandit.
In response to receiving this award, Kieran said “I’m very grateful to receive this acknowledgement from an esteemed society such as the ESB, at the forefront of biomaterial research. My work at CÚRAM would not have been possible without the help of my mentors and colleagues over the years, especially Abhay for all his guidance. I look forward to continuing my work in spine regeneration and hope to contribute to the ESB again soon.”
Since its establishment in 1976, the ESB conference has been a significant event for the biomaterials science community. ESB 2023 will once again bring together all major disciplines of biomaterials science enabling participants to network with colleagues, establish new collaborations, exchange knowledge, and discuss recent advances in emerging biomaterials-related topics.