UCD inventor shortlisted for woman in technology of the year award 2012
Dr Barbara Murphy, a researcher in UCD’s School of Agriculture and Food Science, has been shortlisted for the Women Mean Business (WMB), Woman in Technology of the Year Award 2012.
Dr Murphy is the inventor of the Equilume light mask for horses. This mask is used to advance the breeding season in Thoroughbred mares so that their foals are born close to their universal birthday of 1 January.
The reason Thoroughbred horse breeders want to adjust the reproductive cycle of mares is that the industry applies a universal birthday of 1 January to all foals. This means that if a horse was born in August, it is called a yearling just 5 months later, but it is too immature for sale.
Other uses of the Equilume light mask include reducing extended gestation lengths in mares due to foal early in the year, treating ‘horse jet-lag’ and enabling competition horses to shed their winter coats earlier in time for the start of the show circuit.
Dr Murphy is currently working with Enterprise Ireland and UCD’s technology transfer team to build a UCD spin-out company around the technology which will be called Equilume Ltd.
UCD's Dr Barbara Murphy, inventor of the Equilume Light Mask for horses
The other finalists for the WMB Woman in Technology Award 2012 are; Lavinia Morris, Friends First; Ann-Marie Holmes, Intel Ireland; Orla Cox, Symantec Ltd; Orla Sheridan, Microsoft Ireland and Grainne Barry, AnotherFriend.com.
Finalists for the WMB Business Woman of the Year Award 2012 include: Grainne Kelliher, ARAMARK Food Services; Lisa Holt, CPL Resources plc; Julie O’Neill, Gilead Sciences Ltd; Fionnuala Meehan, Google and Carmel O’Boyle, Oracle Direct EMEA.
Finalists for Enterprise Ireland WMB Female Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2012 include: Sarah Nic Lochlainn, Aruna Sauces; Triona Campbell, beActive International; Ann McGee, McGee Pharma International; Regina Bushell, Grovelands Childcare and Anne Reilly, Paycheck Plus.
Finalists for the Newstalk Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2012 include: Barbara O’Connell, Acquired Brain Injury Ireland; Sinead Gibney, Social Action Ireland at Google; Marcella Finnerty, The Institute of Integrative Counselling and Psychotherapy/Village Counselling Service (IICP/VCS); Niamh Gallagher and Michelle O’Donnell Keating, Women for Election and Elaine Geraghty, Inspire Ireland Foundation.
The awards will be presented at the Women Mean Business Conference & Awards 2012 which will be held at the Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin on 1 October 2012.
The conference features a diverse range of speakers and the theme of the conference is ‘Power The Passion’ and the day will include a panel discussion, facilitated networking with IFG Corporate Pensions and an Awards lunch.
Earlier this year Dr Murphy won the Enterprise Ireland 2012 ‘One to Watch’ Award and Dr Murphy was also an award winner on the NovaUCD 2011 Campus Company Development Programme.
ENDS
11 September 2012
For further information contact Micéal Whelan, University College Dublin, Communications Manager (Innovation), t: + 353 1 716 3712, e: miceal.whelan@ucd.ie.
Editors Notes
The independent judging panel for the 2012 Awards includes; Una O’Hare, General Manager and Director of ITronics Ltd; Julie Sinnamon, Executive Director, Global Business Development, Enterprise Ireland; Garrett Harte, Station Editor of Newstalk 106-108 FM and Rosemary Delaney, Managing Director of WMB Publishing Ltd.
The conference will feature keynote speaker Dawn Gibbins MBE, Philanthropreneur and founder of Flowcrete, a global flooring company with a turnover reaching £50 million; entrepreneur and author Sharon Wright whose pitch on BBC’s Dragons’ Den had all Dragons vying to invest in her invention Magnamole. Also taking to the stage is Professor Susan Vinnicombe OBE, Cranfield School of Management, an expert on gender diversity on corporate boards, women’s leadership styles and author of the annual Female FTSE Report.
The Equilume light mask, developed by Dr Murphy in collaboration with Professor John Sheridan, UCD’s School of Electrical, Electronic and Communications Engineering, provides timed, low-level light to a single eye.
It limits levels of the hormone melatonin which is usually produced in darkness and inhibits a mare’s reproductive activity during winter months. Keeping mares indoors under artificial lights has long been used to encourage mares to breed earlier. Keeping the lights on until 11 pm during winter fools a mare’s reproductive system into thinking it is spring and advances the mare’s reproductively active cycle.
This new technology will allow breeders to keep their mares outside in their natural environment while the special light in the mask adjusts their reproductive cycle. In addition to the horses being in a healthier environment, the breeders will save around €1,400 a season per animal on the costs associated with indoor maintenance of horses – labour, bedding and artificial light.
