News Archive

The Novartis Dr. Vincent Barry Medal 2023/2024 awarded to Ker Ying Thin

The new Novartis sponsored Dr. Vincent Barry Medal was awarded for the first time on Monday 2nd December 2024 and we were delighted to have Shane Hayes of Novartis in UCD to make the presentation in person.

Ker Ying Thin is the very first recipient of the Novartis – Dr. Vincent Barry Medal. She received this accolade for being the best performing student by achieving the highest Grade Point Average (GPA) and an overall First Class Honours result in the School of Chemistry Taught MSc Programmes in the 2023/24 academic year.

Ker Ying Thin and Shane Hayes of Novartis   

This Medal is named for Dr. Vincent Barry who was awarded a first class honours BSc degree in Chemistry in 1928 by UCD and went on to make a significant contribution managing the team that uncovered the anti-leprosy drug clofazimine. Clofazimine was first synthesised in 1954 by a team of scientists led by Dr. Barry. It was originally targeted at Tuberculosis but was later found to be very effective against leprosy. Dr. Barry and his team donated the rights to Clofazimine to Novartis so that it could be provided to leprosy sufferers on a non commercial basis. In 1969, Novartis launched it under the brand name Lamprene.

The fight against leprosy is one of the greatest public health successes in history. Yet, still today, 2 to 3 million people are living with physical disability and stigma as a result of the disease. For more than 30 years, Novartis has been working with partners around the world to (opens in a new window)eliminate leprosy. Multidrug therapy (MDT) of which Clofazimine is the original component, has been a major breakthrough in the treatment of leprosy and its free availability has reduced the global disease burden by 95% in the past three decades.

Since 2000, Novartis has donated more than 70 million blister packs of multidrug therapy (MDT) valued at approximately USD 124 million through the World Health Organization (WHO), helping to treat more than 7.5 million leprosy patients worldwide. Further, the donation has made it possible to interrupt the transmission of leprosy and prevent disabilities. Find out more information about the (opens in a new window)Novartis Leprosy initiative.

The School of Chemistry is very grateful to Novartis for their generous sponsorship of this prestigious annual medal.

Pictured below at the presentation from Left to Right: Shane Hayes of Novartis, Ker Ying Thin, James Sullivan & Paul Evans

More information on Taught MSc Programmes at UCD School of Chemistry is here.

Taught MSc Degrees Degrees in Chemistry Conferred Monday 2nd December2024

The Class of 2023/24 from the two Taught MSc programmes were conferred with their degrees on Monday 2nd December 2024 at 5pm. Earlier that afternoon they attended a school reception to celebrate and mark their conferring.  

Conferred with MSc degrees in Synthetic Chemistry for the Pharmaceutical & Fine Chemicals Industry:

 Joshua Afolabi

Nelly Eyo

Sean Fleming

Hanno Stanley

Aiswarya Sudeer Kumar

Ker Ying Thin

Arathi Vijay Kumar

Conferred with MSc degrees in Chemistry by Negotiated Learning:

Sarah Duffy

Karthikeyan Manoharan

Well Done and Huge Congratulations. 

We are proud to have you as UCD School of Chemistry alumni. 

We wish you all well in your future adventures in life and Chemistry!  

Ad Astra 

Pictured from Left to Right: Karthikeyan Manoharan, Sean Fleming, Ker Ying Thin, Sarah Duffy, and Hanno Stanley.

Graduate Research Degree Conferring

Monday, 2nd December 2024

On Monday 2nd of December 2024 a large group of thirteen chemistry graduate research students were conferred with their degrees. We were delighted to have so many awarded in a single ceremony and to mark the occasion we welcomed these graduands to a school reception to celebrate with their proud supervisors and colleagues. 

MSc by Research Degree

Haode Chen, supervised by (opens in a new window)Xiangming Zhu "Towards the Modification of the Anomeric Position of Glycosyl Thiols"

PhD Degrees

Raphaël Abolivier, supervised by (opens in a new window)James Sullivan "Catalytic processes with potential in lignin biorefining" 

Maria Byrne, supervised by (opens in a new window)Susan Quinn "Development of Multifunctional Silica Nanoparticles for Application as Biological Imaging and Delivery Agents" 

Shekemi Denuga, supervised by (opens in a new window)Robert Johnson "Solid-State Nanopore Sensors for Infectious Disease Detection Based on Ion Current Rectifying Nanopipettes" 

Kate Donaghy, supervised by (opens in a new window)Eoghan McGarrigle "Stereoselective Glycosylation: Mechanistic Insights and Applications" 

Pallavi Dutta, supervised by (opens in a new window)Robert Johnson "Ion Current Rectification in Nanopipettes: From Understanding Ion Transport Dynamics to the Development of Optimized Sensing Systems" 

Emer Farrell, supervised by(opens in a new window) Robert Johnson "Ion-Current Rectifying Nanopores in Aprotic Solvent: From Fundamentals to Applications"

Eva Naughton, supervised by (opens in a new window)James Sullivan "Development of materials for sustainable artificial photosynthesis" 

Adam O'Connell, supervised by (opens in a new window)Elaine O'Reilly "Biocatalytic routes to complex N-heterocycles" 

Aoibheann O'Connor, supervised by (opens in a new window)Pat Guiry "A New Paradigm for the Asymmetric Diels-Alder Reaction" 

Eoin O'Neill, supervised by (opens in a new window)Kenneth Dawson "Multimodal functional nanoparticles for applications in Nanotherapeutics" 

Kathryn Yeow, supervised by (opens in a new window)Elaine O'Reilly "Biocatalytic Cascades for the Synthesis of Therapeutic Iminosugars from Monosaccharides" 

Clara Zehe, supervised by (opens in a new window)Susan Quinn & (opens in a new window)Gareth Redmond "Advanced spectroscopy of carbon based micro- and nanoparticles" 

Hearty Congratulations to each and every one of you on this huge achievement.

We wish you all well in your upcoming adventures in life and chemistry. 

Ad Astra

From Left to Right: James Sullivan, Robert Johnson, Shekemi Denuga, Susan Quinn, Pallavi Dutta, Marina Rubini, Clara Zehe, Declan Gilheany, Maria Byrne, Aoibheann O'Connor, Raphaël Abolivier, Kathryn Yeow, Adam O'Connell, Eoghan McGarrigle, Kate Donaghy, Elaine O'Reilly, Eva Naughton, Tony Keene, Emer Farrell.

Find out more about UCD School of Chemistry's Graduate Research Programmes and our Graduate Research Alumni and their research.

UCD School of Chemistry welcomes colleagues from Zhejiang Normal University, a longstanding partner of UCD

Left to Right: Dr Xiangming Zhu, Director of China-Ireland Chemistry Summer School; Ms Lilla Korbuly, UCD Global Partnerships Officer; Dr. Anna Nunan, Head of Unit at UCD Centre for English and Global Languages; Dr. Joseph Byrne, Deputy Director of China-Ireland Chemistry Summer School; Dr Avishek Nag, Head of Global Engagement - UCD School of Computer Science; Prof Benjamin Elsner, Head of UCD School of Economics; Prof James Sullivan, Head of School of Chemistry; Mr. Guanfu Fu, Vice Chair of ZJNU University Council; Prof Yufeng Chen, Dean of ZJNU College of Economics & Management; Assoc Prof Zhixiong Ye, Executive Vice President for Young Professors Networking Association ZJNU; Assoc Prof Xilong Mao, Director of ZJNU International Office; Assoc Prof Yong Liu, Vice Dean of ZJNU School of Computer Science & Technology.

UCD School of Chemistry was delighted to host a delegation from Zhejiang Normal University, China (ZJNU) on 2nd December 2024. The delegation was led by Mr. Guanfu Fu, the Vice Chair of the ZJNU University Council, who was accompanied by Associate Professor Xilong Mao, Director of the ZJNU International Office, Professor Yufeng Chen, Dean of the ZJNU College of Economics & Management, Associate Professor Yong Liu, Vice Dean of the ZJNU School of Computer Science & Technology and Associate Professor Zhixiong Ye, the Executive Vice President of the Young Professors Networking Association. ProfessorJames Sullivan welcomed the delegation to UCD and expressed his enthusiasm and commitment to strengthening the collaboration between the two institutions, building in particular on the success of the long-running Summer School programme where UCD School of Chemistry has hosted students for many years.

Mr. Guanfu Fu, Vice Chair of ZJNU University Council presents Professor James Sullivan with a ZJNU scroll in honour of the visit.

The main focus of the visit was to deepen and explore further collaborations with UCD with the aim of setting up pre-master programmes and summer schools between ZJNU and the UCD Schools of Chemistry, Economics and Computer Science, and explore other opportunities, joint ventures and exchanges.

The ZJNU delegation met with UCD counterparts including Professor Benjamin Elsner, Head of the UCD School of Economicsand Assistant Professor Avishek Nag, Head of Global Engagement of the UCD School of Computer Science. Dr Anna Nunan, the Head of Unit at UCDCentre for English and Global Languages and Ms Lilla Korbuly, UCD Global Partnerships Officer also joined the meeting to discuss opportunities for connections between ZJNU and UCD including pre-master programmes.

More information on the China-Ireland Chemistry Summer School is online here

Professor Emerita Dervilla M.X. Donnelly

1930-2024

The School of Chemistry is mourning the loss of our colleague and friend Professor Emerita Dervilla Donnelly who has passed away after a short illness. We send our heartfelt condolences to her niece (Frances), nephews (Charles and John), grandnieces, grandnephews, great grandnieces, relatives and friends.

Having achieved a 1st Class Honours in her BSc Chemistry at UCD Dervilla went on to complete a PhD in the field of flavonoid chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Thomas S. Wheeler also at UCD when the then Department of Chemistry was based in Merrion Street. After her PhD she moved to Los Angeles where she undertook research as a postdoctoral fellow in University of California with Professor Ted Geissman.

In 1956 she returned to her alma mater having been appointed as a lecturer in Chemistry and quickly gained international renown in her specialist field of phytochemistry. She was particularly interested in wood chemistry and her research combined organic chemistry, structural studies, mycology and ecology and tried to address some of the problems being encountered within the Irish forestry industry at the time. In 1979 she was appointed Professor of Phytochemistry at UCD Dept (now School) of Chemistry in recognition of her scientific and teaching achievements.

Prof. Donnelly published over 150 research papers and insightful review articles and supervised a large group of 85 PhD students during her academic career at UCD. She was very proud of all of her PhD graduates and had a keen interest in their subsequent careers and was a mentor to many who went into the pharmaceutical industry, biotechnology and academia. She was a leader in the promotion of the benefits of collaborating across disciplines and internationally to science and chemistry in particular. She spent time as a visiting scientist on many occasions in both Stockholm and Gif-sur-Yvette in France where her collaborators were Professor Sir Derek Barton (Nobel Laureate in Chemistry in 1969) and Professor Judith Polonsky.

Her interest and leadership in collaboration led her to develop and manage one of the first academic research networks in Europe in the late 1970s and she went on to develop collaborations worldwide including with scientists in the USA, South Africa and South America. She was elected the Chairperson of the European Science Research Council in 1985 in recognition of her skills and commitment to science and collaboration in Europe and she served as a member and subsequently as Vice-President of the Executive Council of the European Science Foundation from 1990 to 1997.

In 1968 she was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy and she served on many Academy Committees contributing extensively to the work by serving on the Council for over 20 years, Senior Vice-President for 3 years and Vice-President for 11 years. Dervilla had a long association with the RDS where she sat on the committee, was an Honorary member of the Council and Chairperson of the RDS-Irish Times Boyle Medal National Committee, a medal she helped to revive after a lapse in awarding. She was the first woman President of the RDS from 1989-1992.

In 1991 the then Taoiseach appointed her as Chairperson of the Custom House Docks Development Authority and she served in this role until 1997. She was appointed by the Minister for Education to chair the National Education Convention in 1994, and the Forum on Early Childhood Education in 1998. In 1995, the President of Ireland, on the nomination of the Taoiseach, appointed her as Chair of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies and she played a key role in revitalising and regenerating this important body over a five-year period. She was a Member of the Science and Technology Innovation Council (2001) and Vice-Chair of the Board of Governors and Guardians of the National Gallery of Ireland (2001-2002). She was the Chairperson and Director of the Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction between 2000-2005 at the request of the Minister for Health.

Dervilla received numerous awards and honours in recognition of her outstanding work and contributions. These include the Boyle-Higgins Medal of the Institute of Chemistry of Ireland in 1999, the UCD Charter Day Medal in 2000, for her many contributions to the country and to UCD. She was also honoured by a Fellowship of the Hibernian Academy in 1994. In 2010, she was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, First Class for ‘superior creative and commendable services in the areas of the sciences or the arts’. In 2011 she was the recipient of the Inaugural Life Achievement Award of Women in Technology and Science. In 2017, Professor Dervilla Donnelly was the first woman to receive the Royal Irish Academy’s highest honour, The Cunningham Medal. The award recognises “outstanding contributions to scholarship and the objectives of the Academy” and it is the Academy’s premier award dating back to 1796.

A former President of the Institute of Chemistry of Ireland, she was made an Honorary Fellow in 2021. She was also awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Nottingham, The Queen’s University Belfast, Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin and the National University of Ireland. In 2023, a portrait of Professor Donnelly was commissioned by UCD and it hangs proudly in the School of Chemistry at the Ground Floor Entrance to Science South.

Those who knew Dervilla will remember her as a remarkable scientist, researcher and person who instilled an extremely high standard of scientific rigour and integrity in all those she encountered over the course of her career. She had a great sense of humour and an innate ability to connect to students across many generations.

Prof. Donnelly will be deeply missed by her fellow scientists, colleagues and friends at UCD School of Chemistry and the wider community of UCD.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam dilís.

Undergraduate Stage 4 Medals & Project Prizes 2023/24

Just before the conferring ceremony on September 4th 2024, the highest achieving students from the BSc Hons Class of 2024 were awarded School medals and prizes for their outstanding work in Stage 4 of their degrees. 

Every year a number of prestigious School of Chemistry Undergraduate Medals are awarded to outstanding students in our Bachelor of Science Honours programmes. 

Aoife Allen was awarded the Professor Hugh Ryan Memorial Medal (Stage 4 BSc Chemistry)

Searena Carroll and Emilija Stankeviciute both won the Professor Dervilla Donnelly Medal (Stage 4 Medicinal Chemistry & Chemical Biology)

Arno Bannerjee and Vanessa Nobis received the Professor Howard Sidebottom Medal (Stage 4 BSc Chemistry with Environmental & Sustainable Chemistry

Searena Carroll won a specially engraved conical flask for the Best Stage 4 Project Prize 2023/24. 

Head of School Professor James Sullivan presented the prizes at the event.

 Academic staff and the students' families were on hand to celebrate the achievements of the winners. Congratulations to each of you.

September 2024 Conferring of Undergraduate and Graduate Degrees

BSc Hons Class of 2024

UCD School of Chemistry celebrated the conferring of the Class of 2024 BSc Hons students on Wednesday the 4th of September 2024.  Congratulations to all of our new Graduates.

Also conferred on the day were three of our graduate research students who were there to celebrate their achievements with the School and their families:

Niall Quinn, MSc, for a thesis entitled "Synthesis and Characterisation of Iron(III) and Manganese(III) Spin Switches" (Morgan Research Group)

Fiona Moclair, PhD, for a thesis entitled "The Detection and EHS Risk Determination of Nanomaterials in the Semiconductor Industry" (Dawson Research Group) 

Zhan Ban, PhD (in absentia), for a thesis entitled "Unravelling the Biomolecular and Community Grammars of RNA Granule via Machine Learning" (Dawson Research Group)

Dr Niall Quinn pictured with his proud parents, his supervisor Associate Professor Grace Morgan, and Professor James Sullivan, Head of School

We are delighted to congratulate all who were conferred with their degrees and wish you all the very best for the future.

ICI organises

9th EuChemS Chemistry Congress

7-11 July 2024, Dublin

The  (opens in a new window)9^th EuChemS Chemistry Congress took place last week in the Convention Centre in Dublin.

This highly anticipated conference was organised by the (opens in a new window)Institute of Chemistry of Ireland (ICI) which is presided over by Professor Patrick Guiry, from UCD School of Chemistry.

In a week packed with plenary lectures by eminent chemists, invited speakers, short talks, and a series of poster presentations, UCD School of Chemistry was delighted to sponsor the lecture of (opens in a new window)Nobel Laureate Professor Sir David W. C.  MacMillan. Sir David shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2021 with Benjamin List “for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis”, and is based at Princeton University where he is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry.

Congratulations to Professor Guiry and ICI for a wonderful conference and to UCD School of Chemistry academic staff, postdocs and PhD students who presented during the week.

On Wednesday the 29th of May 2024 the Dublin Chemistry 3rd Year Talks were hosted by Trinity College Dublin School of Chemistry. 40 PhD students from UCD and TCD School of Chemistry presented their research in 15 minute seminars. Three parallel sessions ran throughout the day, with seminars grouped by type of chemistry. Further  information is available in the  Seminar ProgrammeSeminar Programmeor theAbstracts BookAbstracts Book. Each session was chaired by an academic staff member from UCD, TCD or TUD and a panel of judges comprised of academic staff also attended each session to undertake an assessment of each. 

3rd Year Talks were organised by Professor Declan Gilheany. We are very grateful to our long running sponsors Eli Lilly for their continued support for the Dublin Chemistry 3rd year talks. Prizes were presented to 5 winners by Dr. Michael Carroll,Senior Principal Scientist from Eli Lilly Kinsale Limited. 

Congratulations to our UCD Chemistry PhD students who were awarded prizes at this year's session.

From left: Jonathan Devlin, (opens in a new window)Baumann Group, Periklis Karamanis, (opens in a new window)Rubini Group, and Zoe Beato, (opens in a new window)Zhu Group, receive their prizes from Dr. Michael Carroll, Eli Lilly.

December 2023 Conferring of Graduate Degrees

UCD School of Chemistry is delighted to congratulate a large group of twenty-five graduate students who were conferred with their degrees at this year’s December Conferring ceremony on Tuesday the 5^th of December 2023. Ten PhD students and two MSc by Research students were conferred alongside thirteen Taught MSc students in a day of celebration of all of their achievements.

Back Row, left to right – Joe Byrne, Declan Gilheany, Aniello Palma, Tony Keene, Eoghan McGarrigle, Pat Guiry, Nadia Elghobashi-Meinhardt, Marcus Baumann, Vitaly Buckin.

Front Row, left to right – Aoife O’Donnell, Rachel Tan, Wanyujin Wang, Peter McDermott, Benjamin Owen, Cormac Bracken, Kian Donnelly, Dorottya Kriszan, Mark Dizon, Ines Martinez Chauvin, Zoe Walsh, and Susan Quinn.

Masters degrees were conferred upon students from our two Taught Masters programmes.

Well done to:

Left to right: Declan Gilheany, Aoife O’Donnell, Wanyujin Wang & Rachel Tan

The Graduate Research cohort comprised two MScs by Research and ten PhD students. As always, their thesis titles demonstrate the wide breadth of research that our Graduate Research students undertake.

Zoe Walsh MSc, supervised by Susan Quinn & Jeremy Simpson, for her thesis entitled “Study of the Biological Interactions on Luminescent Carbon Dots”.

Ines Martinez Chauvin, MSc, supervised by Dermot Brougham, for her thesis entitled “Synthesis and process optimisation of multicore iron-oxide nanoparticles as responsive components in biomedical applications”.

Mark Dizon PhD, supervised by Vitaly Buckin, for his thesis entitled “Application of high-resolution ultrasonic spectroscopy for real-time non-destructive monitoring of hydrolysis of whey proteins”.

Kian Donnelly PhD, supervised by Marcus Baumann, for his thesis entitled “Utilising Continuous Flow Technology for the Synthesis of Strained Cyclic Systems”.

Cian Reid PhD, supervised by Patrick Guiry, for his thesis entitled “The Synthesis of Chiral P,N Ligands and Their Applications in Asymmetric Catalysis”.

Dorottya Krizsan PhD, supervised by Susan Quinn, for her thesis entitled “Towards Dual Emissive DNA-Binding Probes: Preparation, Characterisation and Functionalism of Luminescent Carbon Dots”.

Peter McDermott PhD, supervised by Eoghan McGarrigle, for his thesis entitled “Novel Strategies for the Synthesis of Organophosphorus Compounds”.

Cormac Bracken PhD, supervised by Marcus Baumann, for his thesis entitled “Applying Photoflow Chemistry to Generate Diverse Heterocycles from Reactive Intermediaries”.

Lucy Byrne PhD, supervised by Patrick Guiry, for her thesis entitled “Towards the Synthesis of Lipoxin-Resolvin Hybrid Analogues for Potential Therapeutic Applications”.

Danielle Winning PhD, supervised by Dermot Brougham, for her thesis entitled “Magnetic Nanocomposite Hydrogels with AC-field Induced Release as Controlled Delivery Systems for Biomedicine”.

Benjamin Owen PhD, supervised by Patrick Guiry, for his thesis entitled “The Synthesis of Bicyclo[1.1.1]pentane-Containing Aromatic Lipoxin Analogues”.

Francesca Giulia Nacca PhD, supervised by Andrew Phillips, for her thesis entitled “Synthesis and Evaluation of a Functionalised Set of Highly Lewis Acidic Eta-6-Arene Ru(II) Alpha, Alpha-Diimine Catalysts to Efficient Promote Benchmarked Diels-Alder Cycloadditions”.

The Baumann Research Group celebrating with Cormac Bracken and Kian Donnelly

The Guiry Research Group celebrating with Cian Reid, Benjamin Owen, & Lucy Byrne

We wish you all the very best in your future careers and hope that you will keep in touch with us.

Go n-éirí an bothar libh go léir!

Professor Stefan Oscarson's Final Lecture

On Thursday 25th of April Prof. Stefan Oscarson gave his last lecture before his upcoming retirement in July 2024.

His colleagues in the School of Chemistry surprised him by arriving unannounced just before he started the lecture and Head of School, James Sullivan said a few words about Stefan's long and distinguished career. To read about Stefan's research and publications click (opens in a new window)here. 

The Stage 3 class presented Stefan with a 'Carbohydrate Chemistry' cake and the School supplied donuts for the occasion. We all wish Stefan well for his upcoming retirement.

For almost 40 years (opens in a new window)BOC Gases Ireland Ltd has generously sponsored the annual award for best research project amongst 3rd and 4th year PhD students in UCD School of Chemistry.

The competition is announced each year and applications are submitted by interested and eligible PhD students before a deadline. Applications are comprised of a research project summary including research objectives, results achieved and list of publications. Copies of publications are also a key part of applications. 

Each year a judging panel comprised of UCD School of Chemistry academics is convened. They work together to identify the best project or projects reading the submissions and meeting to discuss their decision on the winner(s).  The prize can be awarded to one student or jointly between a number of students. 

All the previous winners (from 1987) are listed here. 

In 2023/2024 the BOC Gases Award was made jointly to Arlene Bonner, Emer Farrell, Adam O'Connell and M. Rosa Fernandez Pison (pictured below). 

L to R: M. Rosa Fernandez Pison, Emer Farrell, Arlene Bonner, Adam O'Connell, Mr Dermot Browne from BOC Gases Ireland Ltd.,                                      and Associate Professor Tony Keene.

On the 25th of April 2024 the winners gave a seminar to the School about their research to celebrate their achievements. We were delighted that Mr Dermot Browne, Sales Director of BOC Gases Ireland, could join Associate Professor Tony Keene, the School Head of Graduate Studies, for the presentation of the awards.

You can read more about Arlene ((opens in a new window)Baumann Research Group), Emer (opens in a new window)(Johnson Research Group), Adam ((opens in a new window)O'Reilly Research Group) and Rosa ((opens in a new window)Phillips Research Group) and their winning research projects at BOC Awards Joint Winners 2023/2024 .

BOC Awards Joint Winners 2023/2024

Kindly sponsored by BOC Gases Ireland Ltd.

Professor Paul T Anastas gives the UCD School of Chemistry 2022/2023 Wheeler Lecture 

Professor James Sullivan, Head of School and Professor Paul T. Anastas

The UCD School of Chemistry was delighted to host a visit by (opens in a new window)Professor Paul T. Anastas of Yale University on the 30th and 31st of May 2023. 

Professor Anastas is internationally acknowledged as a co-founder of the field of Green Chemistry following the publication of his seminal book (opens in a new window)Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice (Warner and Anastas, 1998).

Professor Paul T Anastas

We were delighted for Professor Anastas to deliver the first UCD School of Chemistry Professor Thomas S. Wheeler Lecture since 2013/2014 entitled "Rethinking Sustainable Molecular Design" on the 31st May to a packed lecture theatre and captivated audience comprised of undergraduate, taught MSc and PhD students, research funded staff, technical officers and faculty together with active retired faculty from UCD School of Chemistry. We were also delighted to host PhD students and colleagues from TCD Chemistry and colleagues from RSCI, DCU, TUD and MU.

To mark his Wheeler Lecture and in line with the longstanding tradition in UCD School of Chemistry Professor Anastas signed the glass wall on the 3rd floor of Science South.

During his visit Professor Anastas also attended some of the Dublin Chemistry 3rd Year Talks and spent time talking to PhD students and faculty across a wide breadth of chemistry.

We particularly wish to thank Professor Anastas for finding time in his busy schedule to visit UCD School of Chemistry and deliver an enthralling Wheeler lecture which has kicked off a new era in this school lecture series.

Thanks to Vincent Hoban/UCD for the photographs.

School of Chemistry Graduates Conferred - June 2023

Front row, left to right: Prof. James Sullivan, Jessica McFadden, Judit Fodor, Zengchun Xie and  Associate Prof. Marcus Baumann.

Second row, left to right: Prof. Dermot Brougham, David Ferris, Niamh Geoghegan, Joseph Ruddy and Mark Stitch.

Back row, left to right: Prof. Gareth Redmond, Assistant Prof. Andrew Phillips, Dr. Susan Kelleher (now DCU School of Chemical Sciences), Associate Prof. Susan Quinn and Assistant Prof. Eoghan McGarrigle.

We were delighted to have a group of 11 postgraduates conferred with their degrees on Friday 16th June 2023. The group was comprised of 10 PhD students and one MSc by Research and they are listed below with their thesis titles and supervisors. The breadth of the chemistry shown in their thesis titles is a snapshot of some of the current and recent research conducted in UCD School of Chemistry. 

We were even more pleased that 8 of them were able to join us for the conferring ceremony on the day and that we managed to get 7 of them and a group of academics including some supervisors together for a photo!

Dennis Bengtsson PhD, supervised by Stefan Oscarson, for his thesis entitled "Synthesis of lactose-containing structures for development of drug and vaccine candidates".

David Ferris PhD, supervised by Gareth Redmond, for his thesis entitled "Organic Micro- and Nano-particles Manufactured by Fluidic Processing: Impacts on Structural and Photophysical Properties".

Judit Fodor PhD, supervised by Andrew Phillips and Susan Quinn, for her thesis entitled "Bioactive Tuneable Ru(II) and Os(II) Polypyridyl Complexes Bearing the Bis(arylimino) acenaphthene (BIAN) and Related Ligands".

Niamh Geoghegan PhD, supervised by Susan Kelleher, for her thesis entitled "Fabrication of Polymeric Nano- and Micro-structures using Two-Photon Polymerisation and Replica Moulding".

Jessica McFadden PhD, supervised by Susan Kelleher, for her thesis entitled "Nanoscale surface structures for antibacterial applications".

Morgan Morris PhD, supervised by Paul Evans, for his thesis entitled "Use of Lactose as a Targeting Entity for Potential Drug Delivery Applications".

Joseph Ruddy PhD, supervised by Eoghan McGarrigle, for his thesis entitled "Asymmetric Synthesis of Organophosphorus Compounds".

Emily Sheridan PhD, supervised by Kenneth Dawson, for her thesis entitled "Time-resolved recovery of intracellular magnetic nanoparticles".

Mark Stitch PhD, supervised by Susan Quinn, for his thesis entitled "Advanced Spectroscopic Studies of Structurally Diverse DNA Systems Towards New Therapeutics and Diagnostics".

Zengchun Xie PhD, supervised by Kenneth Dawson, for his thesis entitled "Organised nanoscale architectures for biological regulation: including surface property and shape".

and

Celine Erkey MSc, supervised by Demetra Achilleos, for her thesis entitled "Biomass Photoreforming via "Green" Photocatalytic Routes".

Celine Erkey

We are looking forward to hearing what these graduates get up to next. We are sure that each of them has a very bright future ahead of them.

Portrait unveiled in honour of renowned UCD chemist and mentor Professor Dervilla Donnelly

Professor Dervilla Donnelly (1930-2024), the first woman awarded the Cunningham medal - the (opens in a new window)Royal Irish Academy's (RIA)'s highest honour, was one of Ireland’s leading chemists of the past decades. The specially commissioned portrait of Professor Donnelly was unveiled at a Women's Day event on 31 March, which was organised by the School of Chemistry EDI Committee.

Artist Emer O'Boyle's beautiful portrait honours Prof. Donnelly's many achievements since she graduated from UCD. She played a pivotal role in Ireland’s’ scientific success, not just with her own research, but with her influence on science policy and as mentor to generations of Irish and international academics and business leaders. A profile of Professor Donnelly and her outstanding career is available on the School of Chemistry website.

The portrait now hangs in pride of place at the south entrance to Science South (opposite the Agriculture building) above the heritage chemistry bench display.

A full account of the event may be found on the UCD News & Events website or follow (opens in a new window)@ucddublin and (opens in a new window)@ucdchemistry on Twitter for more details.

School of Chemistry  Graduates Conferred

6th of September 2023

It was a beautiful day for the conferring of our Chemistry graduates on Wednesday 6th of September. The weather was matched only by the bright smiles and happy faces of the students and staff as they celebrated their achievements  Chemistry. We were lucky to have many of the graduates join us by the new lake to record this special day and Paddy Campbell's sculpture 'Wind and Water' appears to be in full agreement with the celebrations.

Joining the Class of 2023 were (from left) Patrick Guiry, Marcus Baumann, Susan Quinn, Joe Byrne, and Marina Rubini 

Congratulations to our undergraduates who were conferred with BSc degrees in Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry & Chemical Biology, Chemistry with Environmental & Sustainable Chemistry and Chemistry with Biophysical Chemistry. They were joined by some of the academic staff who taught them throughout their time at UCD.

From our Taught Masters programme, Gareth Lenehan was conferred with his MSc in Synthetic Chemistry for the Pharmaceutical & Fine Chemicals Industry. 

It was also a big day for the Baumann Research Group. In the first conferrings from Marcus Baumann's group, Mara di Filippo and Aisling Loftus received their PhD and MSc by Research Degrees respectively. The whole research group turned out to congratulate their colleagues and wish them well for the future.

Mara Di Filippo (PhD) and Aisling Loftus (MSc by Research) and their supervisor Marcus Baumann

The Baumann Research Group 

Congratulations to each and every Graduate, we are very proud of you all and look forward to hearing about your next adventures.

Dublin Chemistry - 3rd Year PhD Talks 2023

On Wednesday May 31st, UCD School of Chemistry hosted the Dublin Chemistry 3rd Year Talks with 37 PhD students from UCD, TCD School of Chemistry, and TUD School of Chemical and Biopharmaceutical Sciences each presenting their research in a 15 minute seminar.

Organised by Professor Declan Gilheany three parallel sessions ran throughout the day, with seminars grouped by type of chemistry. Further  information is available in the Seminar programme or the Abstract book. Each session was chaired by an academic staff member from UCD, TCD or TUD and a panel of judges comprised of academic staff also attended each session to undertake an assessment of each.  

We are very grateful to our long running sponsors Eli Lilly for their continued support for the Dublin Chemistry 3rd year talks. We were delighted that Dr. Michael Carroll, Senior Principal Scientist TS/MS Small Molecule from Eli Lilly Kinsale Limited, who gave a 3rd year talk during his own PhD studies with us, was able to be with us to present the prizes to the 6 winners. 

Dr Michael Carroll of Eli Lilly presented prizes to (clockwise from top left): Shekemi Denuga, Aoibheann O'Connor, Eva Naughton, Alby Benny, and Annael Sort-Montenegro. Our thanks to Vincent Hoban, UCD for the photographs.

Shekemi Denuga, Johnson Group, UCD "A Nanopore Sensor for the Detection of Sars-Cov2 Based on Ion Current Rectification"

Aoibheann O'Connor, Guiry Group, UCD "A New Paradigm for the Asymmetric Diels-Alder Reaction".

Eva Naughton, Sullivan Group, UCD "Development of Materials for Sustainable Artificial Photosynthesis".

Annael Sort-Montenegro,  Florea Group, TCD "Movement Generation Under the Application of an Electric Field: Electrotaxis and Electro-actuation".

Alby Benny, Scanlan group, TCD "Thioaspartic Acid Mediated Methods for Peptide Ligation and Macrocyclisation".

Justynne Joy Fabian, Warren group, TUD "Surface Modification of Titanium Alloys for Biomedical Applications".

School of Chemistry EDI Committee

Let’s Talk About Race: Bridging the Gap in Science

Wednesday, 19th April, UCD Village Auditorium

Let’s Talk About Race was the second EDI symposium of the Behind the Position series, organised by the PhD student members of the UCD School of Chemistry EDI committee. After the success of the first event in this series, which highlighted gender equality in STEM, this year we featured race and ethnicity in Irish STEM education. The Higher Education Authority (HEA) and the UCD EDI frameworks suggest that organising such events will highlight potential issues in this sphere to current students and encourage inclusivity across the University.

UCD’s statement on Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion states “UCD believes in equality, diversity, and inclusion and embeds these fairness principles to all aspects of university life. UCD’s vision for EDI is to be a leader and role model in equality and diversity in the higher education sector nationally and internationally, and for EDI to be at the heart of all we do.”

Professor AP De Silva

Shekemi Denuga

On Wednesday, 19 April, over one hundred attendees listened to our speakers as they shared their experiences as members of minority ethnic groups, in work, and in their lives. We are grateful to Dr Julia Bruno Colmenarez, Dr Prosper Anaedu, Dr Leila Negahdar,  Prof AP De Silva, Dr Weimu Xu, and Shekemi Denuga for their contributions, which we hope will begin important conversations about race and ethnicity in UCD College of Science, and the wider University.

Prof Jeremy Simpson

Thanks also to Dr Elaine O’Reilly and College Principal Prof Jeremy (Jez) Simpson for their remarks, to the Head of School Prof James Sullivan and to the School Office for their support. Thanks finally to Dr Rosana Lopez for taking photos at the event. 

Professor Kenneth Dawson receives prestigious ERC Advanced Grant

for nanoscale medicines

Professor Dawson, Chair of Physical Chemistry at UCD School of Chemistry and Director of the Centre for BioNano Interactions (CBNI), was awarded the prestigious funding for his project FunctionalNanoTher - which aims to develop much more efficient vaccines, and other treatments, by leveraging the body’s naturally occurring nanoscale communication network.

Full details are available on the UCD News & Opinion website. See also our Twitter feed (opens in a new window)@ucdchemistry!

UCD Ladies win their fourth Division 1 Hockey championship

UCD School of Chemistry is very proud of Niamh Carey and the (opens in a new window)UCD Ladies Hockey team who have claimed their fourth league championship, winning the EY Hockey League following a 3-0 victory over Pegasus.

Niamh is a final year BSc Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology Student (MCCB) and she is a holder of a UCDAd Astra Elite Sports Scholarship. She also plays hockey for Ireland(opens in a new window)https://hockey.ie/internationals-senior-womens-player-profiles/.

Check out the celebrations at (opens in a new window)UCD Ladies Hockey Club Instagram or follow us on (opens in a new window)Twitter.

Well done to Niamh & the team.

UCD-UCSF partnership wins NovaUCD Innovation Award for novel lung disease relief

Professor Stefan Oscarson, UCD School of Chemistry, and Professor Stephen Carrington, UCD School of Veterinary Medicine (retired), recipients of the 2023 NovaUCD Innovation Award

A research collaboration that developed a new drug to help those suffering with respiratory diseases to breathe more easily have won this year’s NovaUCD Innovation Award.

Professor (opens in a new window)Stefan Oscarson, UCD School of Chemistry, and Professor Stephen Carrington, who retired from the UCD School of Veterinary Medicine in 2016, have received the 2023 award in recognition of their successful and longstanding research collaboration with Professor John Fahy, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).  

A full account of the 2023 NovaUCD Awards is available on the  UCD News & Opinion website. Follow news from the School of Chemistry on  (opens in a new window)Twitter.

(From Left) Leila Negahdar, Aniello Palma, Joseph Byrne, and Nadia Elghobashi-Meinhardt

Assistant Professor Leila Negahdar

Before coming to UCD, Leila was Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellow in University College London. Prior to this, she was research associate at Cardiff University UK, postdoctoral research fellow at RWTH Aachen University Germany, and postdoctoral research fellow at Utrecht University Netherlands. She received her master’s degree from University of Dortmund, Germany, and PhD degree in Chemistry from RWTH Aachen University in 2015. Her research interests include mainly catalytic surface reaction, kinetics and mechanism, chemical processes and in situ/operando spectroscopy in catalysis. Her current research focuses on applying dynamic catalysis and innovative approaches for tackling the grand global challenges - climate change, pollution, and sustainable energy.

Research highlight: Shining light on the solid–liquid interface: in situ/
operando monitoring of surface catalysis

Assistant Professor Aniello Palma

Aniello obtained a Master's degree in Chemistry at the Università di Napoli Federico II in 2005. In October 2010, he obtained his PhD in Organic Chemistry from UCD with a thesis entitled “Synthesis and Application of New Infra-Red Fluorophores”. In January 2011, he joined the group of Prof Anthony Barrett (FRS, FMEDSCI) in Imperial College London, as a postdoctoral researcher working on a medicinal chemistry project involving the synthesis of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors. In January 2015, he joined Prof Oren Scherman’s research group in the Melville Laboratory for Polymer Synthesis at the University of Cambridge focusing on the synthesis of supramolecular polymers, supramolecular sensors and on the development of supramolecular catalysts. In August 2017, Aniello started his independent career in the School of Physical Sciences at the University of Kent as a Lecturer in Organic Chemistry. He joined the School of Chemistry at UCD as an Assistant Professor in Organic and Medicinal Chemistry in January 2023. Aniello’s research focuses on the design of smart and responsive materials prepared via supramolecular approaches and inspired by biomolecules. These bioinspired materials have applications in the fields of green catalysis, chemical sensing and separation, drug delivery and novel therapeutics.

Example of a reversibly porous, crystalline, supramolecular peptide framework (SPF) developed in Palma’s group. Thermal activation, guest-induced dynamic porosity and enantioselective guest inclusion have been demonstrated for this novel system. Chem.Eur. J. DOI: 10.1002/chem.202202368

Assistant Professor Joseph Byrne

 Joe studied chemistry first at Maynooth University and then in Trinity College Dublin where he completed his PhD in the lab of Thorri Gunnlagusson, supported by the Irish Research Council. His research was in the field of supramolecular chemistry and luminescent lanthanide complexes. He won a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship to carry out research into carbohydrate-functionalised organometallic catalysts in Martin Albrecht's group at Universität Bern (Switzerland), where he stayed for 3 years. In 2019, Joe begin his independent research at University of Galway, funded by an SFI Starting Investigator Research Grant. His group have been investigating the ability of carbohydrate functionalised metal complexes to detect bacterial lectin proteins, as well as their potential antimicrobial properties. Joe joined UCD in January 2023 and is leading an IRC Laureate Award and a North-South Research Project (supported by the HEA and the Shared Island Fund). New diagnostic and therapeutic tools are needed in the fight against antimicrobial resistance, and through research at the interface of inorganic chemistry and carbohydrate chemistry, the Byrne Group aim to make discoveries which will contribute to this challenge. Joe is a committee member of the RSC Carbohydrate Interest Group and the Irish Biological Inorganic Chemistry Society and advisor to the Institute of Chemistry of Ireland's Young Chemists Network.

Assistant Professor (Ad Astra Fellow) Nadia Elghobashi-Meinhardt

Nadia completed her PhD in Theoretical Chemistry in 2005 at the Free University Berlin, followed by two postdoctoral appointments (Fritz-Haber-Institute of the Max-Planck-Society in Berlin and Heidelberg University) to pursue research in the field of computational biophysics. In her research, Nadia uses a combination of computational techniques to study structure-function relationships in complex biological systems. Nadia also enjoys teaching and has taught a wide range of courses in chemistry and mathematics. In 2023, Nadia was awarded a UCD Ad Astra fellowship and appointed Assistant Prof. in the School of Chemistry at UCD.

Nadia’s group uses quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) methods to model and investigate the chemistry taking place in metalloenzymes. Here, the catalytic site of acetyl-Co-enzyme A synthase (ACS) contains an iron-sulfur cluster and two nickel atoms, a proximal nickel and a distal nickel. Only the proximal nickel atom is believed to be directly involved in the catalytic reaction.

The International Day of Women and Girls in Science (IDWGS) was celebrated with a breakfast event in the University Club on February 8^th 2023, organised by the postdocs from the EDI committees in the School of Chemistry and School of Mathematics and Statistics. The event included a role model awards ceremony for nine female role models, nominated by graduate students and postdocs from our two schools.

The role model awardees from the School of Chemistry are:

Prof Susan Quinn

Dr Gita Singh

Kathryn Yeow

Katie McGarry

Ioanna Bampouri

Olivia Breen

The Role Model awardees from the School of Mathematics and Statistics are:

Professor Claire Gormley

Dr Áine Byrne

Tiziana Comito

Congratulations to all the role model awardees!

        Left to right: Ioanna Bampouri, Kathryn Yeow, Katie McGarry, and Dr Gita Singh. 

        Professor Susan Quinn

Left to right: Award winners: Professor Claire Gormley, Dr Áine Byrne, Tiziana Comito, Kathryn Yeow, Olivia Breen.  Organising Committee: Dr Marianne Haarr, Dr Gabriel Piovano, Dr Karina Nigoghossian, and Dr Gita Singh, who also won an award.

BOC Gases Graduate Research Awards 2022/2023

On Tuesday the 16th of May 2023 the School was delighted to welcome Mr Dermot Browne, Sales Director at BOC Gases Ireland Limited, to present this year's awards. 

Thank you to all who entered. This year's winners were:

• Peter McDermott, and his project 'The Synthesis of Organophosphorus Compounds via the Functionalisation of α,β-Unsaturated Phosphonates and Phosphinates'
• Benjamin Owen, for 'The Synthesis of Bicyclo[1.1.1]pentane-Containing Aromatic Lipoxin Analogues'
• Clara Zehe, for her project entitled 'Advanced spectroscopy of carbon-based nanoparticles'.

From Left: Dermot Browne, BOC Gases Ireland, Clara Zehe, Benjamin Owen, Peter McDermott and James Sullivan (Head of School).

Peter, Benjamin and Clara each gave a fascinating presentation on their research which was attended by staff and postgraduate students. Dermot commended their research work and presented each student with a framed certificate to commemorate their award.

Our thanks to BOC Gases Ireland for supporting these awards since 1987, providing an annual bursary of €4000, which is split evenly amongst the winners. There have been 89 winners to date. You can view the full list on our Postgraduate Awards webpage.  

The 73^rd Irish Universities Chemistry Research Colloquium

The Irish Universities Chemistry Research Colloquium is run under the aegis of the(opens in a new window) Institute of Chemistry of Ireland.

Organised by Professor Declan Gilheany, UCD School of Chemistry hosted the 73^rd Colloquium on the 15-16^th June 2022, in UCD O'Brien Centre for Science. Contact us (opens in a new window)Chem.Colloquium@ucd.ie

 Well done and Congratulations to the following prize winners

Poster Prize Winners:

Niraj Nitish Patel - UL Department of Chemical Sciences

Clara Evans - MU Department of Chemistry

Vanessa Becker - UCD School of Chemistry 

Lauren Kearney - DCU School of Chemical Sciences

Farhad Mohammed - MU Department of Chemistry

Lorna Doyle - TCD School of Chemistry 

Aidan Cregan - UCC School of Chemistry

Gallery of Poster Prize Winners

Talks Prize Winners: 

Yiming Huang - QUB School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

Karolina Wojtczak - NUIG School of Chemistry

Aoife Kearney - UCC School of Chemistry

Niamh Curtin - RCSI Department of Chemistry

Sheila Fitzgerald - RCSI Department of Chemistry

Sadbh Byrne - UCD School of Chemistry

Caytlin Boylan - MU Department of Chemistry

Gallery of Talks Prize Winners

We would like to thank our generous sponsors:

          

The Plenary Speaker will be Dr Matthew O. Kitching, Durham University.

He is presently Royal Society University Research Fellow at Durham, having been briefly at Dublin City University. He came to prominence last year with the first “Enantioselective Synthesis of Ammonium Cations” (Science, 2021), which was achieved via a supramolecular recognition process that allowed a thermodynamically driven adductive crystallization. This year, with his colleague Mark A, Walsh, he has in prospect a sensational publication on “A Potentially Limitless Chiral Pool via Conglomerate Crystallisation: Unidentified Spontaneous Resolution in the CSD” (ChemRxiv Preprint, 2022). By conducting a manual search of the CSD, they compiled and curated a list of over 1,700 chiral species capable of conglomerate crystallisation.

Change of Philosophy for the Colloquium 2022

Since this will be the first full face-to-face meeting of chemists on the Island since the Covid pandemic, we are changing the rules to celebrate. All final year PhD students are welcome to present their research. Thus there will be no upper limit on the number of speakers from any Institution. To achieve this there will be multiple parallel sessions and a poster session and combined reception.

All final year chemistry PhD students on the Island of Ireland are invited to give a 20-minute seminar (15 min talk + 5 min questions) on their research work. Additionally, any chemistry research student (1^st-4^th Yr PhD/MSc) may present a Poster (size A1). There will be Prizes for Talks and Posters. There will be multiple parallel seminars on both days and one Poster session with an associated hot food and drinks reception in the early evening of 15^th June (6-8 pm). Prior to A Plenary Lecture by Dr Matthew O. Kitching, Durham University. Outline program below (Final program will be published here as soon as it is available). 

 There is no upper limit on the number of speakers / posters from any Institution.

Email Abstracts as pdf to (opens in a new window)Chem.Colloquium@ucd.ie

Use the Word Template (click here) for the Abstract and then covert it to pdf. Abstracts must include, as well as the Supervisor / Principal Investigator, all other persons contributing to the work with the presenter’s name underlined.

Name the pdf for Talk as: Givenname_Surname_Talk.pdf

Name the pdf for Poster as: Givenname_Surname_Poster.pdf

Note: Accommodation is not included in the Registration Fee. Accommodation is available in the UCD Village Complex €85 per night. This must be booked separately by contacting the UCD Village Complex (opens in a new window)here Note that this is one-time booking link, make sure you really want the room because you cannot change it once the booking is made.  

https://www.ucd.ie/newsandopinion/news/2021/november/17/ucdresearchersamong2021globallistofmostinfluential/

The College of Science EDI Committee marked International Day of Women & Girls in Science on 11 February 2019 with an exhibition entitled "UCD Women in Science". The exhibition celebrated the diverse range of talents, knowledge and hard work as well as the contribution to teaching & mentoring of Asst. Prof. Marina Rubini, Technical Officer Sara Collins, Administrator Deirdre Murphy, PhD student Lorna Conway and Stage 4 student Dáiríne Morgan. Congrats to all who took part.

Congratulations to PhD Student Mark Reihill (Oscarson Group) on winning the 2019 JG Buchanan Prize for Best Early Stage Researcher Talk on evaluating Helicobacter Pylori Adhesion Binding at the Royal Society of Chemistry Carbohydrate Group Conference held at the University of Reading in April.  

UCD Chemistry academics awarded research funding                   

Congratulations to the following UCD Chemistry academics who were recently awarded Irish Research Council (opens in a new window)Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship Programme Grants:

(opens in a new window)Professor Declan Gilheany & PhD student Sadbh Byrne who will be working on a project entitled "Use of Asymmetric Grignard Synthesis for Tertiary Alcohols of Pharmaceutical Interest: Design, Selectivity & some Pharmaceutical Applications".

(opens in a new window)Associate Professor Grace Morgan with PhD student Conor Kelly (and recent UCD graduate) who will be working on a project entitled "Manganese-Enhanced MRI (MEMRI) PARACEST and Thermally Responsive Contrast Agents".

(opens in a new window)Associate Professor James Sullivan with PhD student (and recent UCD graduate) Kristy Stanley who will be working on a project entitled "CO2 reforming of CH4 over novel Ni-based catalysts – the influence of preparation and plasma promotion".

(opens in a new window)Assistant Prof. Marina Rubini(opens in a new window) with PhD student Kirti Sharma who will be working on a project entitled "Towards understanding of post-translational modifications: rational engineering of therapeutic cytokines by means of non-natural amino acids".‌‌‌

Assistant Prof. Susan Kelleher who was awarded funding for a 4-year PhD student from the SFI Research Centre, CÚRAM. Niamh Geoghegan (a recent graduate of our school) has taken up the position. She will be studying the mechanical properties and degradation profiles of nanostructured polymeric materials and their use as medical device coatings.

Ass. Prof. Susan Kelleher was a guest on Newstalk's weekly show, Futureproof, 9 Feb 2019, discussing the discovery of a focal pathway in the brain that when electrically stimulated causes immediate laughter, even during awake brain surgery!

Congratulations to third year chemistry student Cillian O'Brien, who has won the competition to represent Ireland on this year's MIRAI Scholarship Program (Science & Technology) organised by the Japanese Government. Cillian will travel to Japan to experience various aspects of Japanese science, technology and society including traditional Japanese culture.

The Guiry Group has featured on the cover of the Journal of Organic Chemistry, January 2019 with their article "Development of and Recent Advances in Pd-Catalyzed Decarboxylative Asymmetric Protonation". Using the Irish sport of hurling as the inspiration for the cover, the UCD playing fields and water tower can be seen clearly. Congratulations to Dr. Cian Kingston & Dr. Jinju James.

December 2018: Congratulations to Prof. Patrick Guiry who received two Irish Research Council awards a for project entitled "Study on Biological Effects of Imidazole Substitution Pattern and BCP-containing LXA4 Analogues" with PhD student Benjamin Owen and for "Novel Axially Chiral P,N Ligands for Asymmetric Catalysis" with PhD student Cian Reid (BSc Chemistry UCD).

September 2018

UCD Chemistry academics were recently awarded Irish Research Council Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship Programme Grants & CÚRAM grants.

Brightspace VLE replaces Blackboard & Moodle from January 2019. Students will be able to access their Cohort 1 modules from 7th January and training for both staff and students is available. Go to https://www.ucd.ie/futurevle/#brightspace_student_orientation.

Congratulations to Katie McGarry and Edward Gannon who received the 2018 MSc Negotiated Learning Intel scholarship award. They are both graduates of our school (Katie from the BSc Med Chem/Chem Bio in 2017, Edward from the BSc Chem in 2018). The awards are worth €3,000 each and 16 in total were awarded in UCD this year across different MSc/MEng degrees. 

December 2018: Congratulations to Prof. Declan Gilheany who recently received a major Horizon2020 award for his project entitled "Animal and Human Nutrition Benefits of Nature Identical Vitamin E AnNuVitE".

November 2018: UCD Chemistry academics Prof. Declan Gilheany, Dr. James Sullivan, Dr. Grace Morgan & Dr. Marina Rubini have been awarded IRC Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship Programme Grants and Dr. Susan Kelleher has been awarded an SFI grant.

Dermot joined the Electronics section of the Department of Chemistry in 1973, set up by Victor Moran some years previously. Dermot was involved in designing, building and modifying new and existing in-house systems for both teaching and research purposes and was promoted to Senior Technical Officer in 1980. Throughout his career he contributed invaluably and tirelessly to both teaching and research in the School of Chemistry and Physics. Enjoy your retirement Dermot!

Congratulations to UCD Chemistry's Professor Kenneth Dawson who has been included in a list of Highly Cited Researchers 2018, compiled by Clarivate Analytics. The list is a citation analysis of researchers who are among the top 1% most cited for their year of publication in one of 21 fields of study. The ranking includes 17 Nobel laureates.Highly Cited Researchers 2018, compiled by Clarivate Analytics.

Congratulations to PhD student James Barker (BSc 2017) who is the recipient of an NUI Travelling Studentship 2018. He is currently with the Guiry Research Group and will travel to Stockholm University as part of his award. 

 On the 26th of March 2018, David Mulrooney (President of ChemSoc 2017/18) and forty undergraduate and postgraduate students visited the new APC facility in Cherrywood for talks and insights into the work undertaken at APC.

Congratulations to PhD student Eduardo de Morais from the Sullivan Group who was awarded a prize for his rapid fire presentation at the MRS Fall Meeting 2018 in Boston. The presentation was part of a symposium on Nanomaterials and Nanomanufacturing for Sustainability.

Happy Retirement to our colleague Mr. Gerry Flynn, Senior Technical Officer with UCD Chemistry. He has been a friendly face in Chemistry Stores for many years and will be much missed by staff and students alike. Here seen holding his UCD Volunteers Oversees Certificate of Appreciation, presented by Caroline Mangan UCDVO Officer, for all his good works in fund raising during his 43 years in UCD Chemistry.

Congratulations to Dr. Samir Belhout (Quinn Group) and Dr. Brian Fitzpatrick (Guiry Group) who were awarded their Chemistry PhD's in September 2018, along with our eight Chemistry PhD students who were awarded their PhD Degrees in June 2018. We wish them every success in their future careers.

The Inorganic Chemistry community in Ireland has been successful in their bid to host the biennial International Conference on Coordination Chemistry (ICCC) in Dublin in 2026. This conference is one of the longest standing and most prestigious on the international Chemistry circuit.

UCD Chemistry's Class of 2018 were awarded their BSc degrees in September 2018. We wish them every success in their future careers and look forward to seeing some of them again as Postgrads!

The Irish company founded in Dublin in 2009 by Prof Gareth Redmond, now Head of Chemistry at University College Dublin, and Prof Gabriel Crean, formerly chief executive at Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, has been acquired by the US medical diagnostics firm Kypha for an undisclosed sum.

Staff from UCD Chemistry talked with students interested in studying science and discussed working opportunities at the 2018 RDS Higher Options fair.

On June 28th, 2018, Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI) announced that UCD had been chosen to be a part of a joint research venture between Ireland and China on eight next-generation projects. A total sum of €3,326,771 has been made available to further research on campus in the areas of wireless communications, nano-materials and chemical engineering.

UCD Chemistry PhD student Vincent Duong (McGarrigle Group) won Best Overall Poster at the Irish Universities Chemistry Research Colloquium held in Queen's University Belfast in June 2018, with Vibe Jakobsen (Morgan Group) winning 2nd Place for his poster.

The School of Chemistry congratulates our PhD student Eduardo Morais who recently won an award at the recent 3rd EUCheMS Green & Sustainable Chemistry conference in York in September 2017.

The research of the NMR and Materials group, led by Associate Professor Dermot Brougham, featured as a cover article in Chemical Communications. The paper describes a novel method to prepare size selectable magnetic nanoparticle assemblies with magnetic anisotropy tunable across the superparamagnetic to ferromagnetic range.

Chemistry PhD student, Andrea Zanetti captured the SFI Research Image of the Year award for his image: ‘Organic ChemisTree, a Telescopic View’.

PhD student (Dawson Group) Emily Sheridan was presented with a judges special distinction award plus €500 for her entry to the 2019 Mary Mulvihill Award, 'A tale of a life lived for science from an unlikely narrator'. The award was presented by Ann O'Dea, CEO of Silicon Republic (pictured left). Emily is also the Dublin coordinator for Pint of Science Dublin. Congratulations Emily!

The APC Awards for Best Research Posters 2018 were presented by Dr. Mark Barrett, CEO APC Ltd. to Stage 4, PhD Year 1 - Year 4 students and Postdocs as part of our 2018 Research Day. View photos of the awardees in our APC Awards 2018 Photo Album.

 Ad Astra Elite Scholar and Stage 4 Chemistry student Shane Mulvaney was named ‘Sportsperson of the Year’ at the 2019 UCD Sport Awards along with fellow rower David O'Malley from Medicine. The pair made a big splash at the World U23 Rowing Championships in July winning gold in the men’s 2000m lightweight pair and were the first ever Irish team to win gold at the championships.

This year, Anna Vetter (Gilheany Group), Eduardo de Morais (Sullivan Group) and Stephen Devereux (Quinn Group) were the recipients of the BOC Gases Bursary Awards for best Postgraduate Project 2019, presented by Dr. Kieran Hennessy and Mr. Eamonn Bolton from BOC Gases Irl. Ltd.

Congratulations to our Stage 4 students who successfully displayed their research posters at the 2019 Research Day.

Congratulations to Stage 4 student Eimear Madden who was awarded 2nd place in the Earth Institute Undergraduate Environmental Researcher of the Year competition which took place in April 2019.

UCD Mass Spectrometry Community of Practice held a pre-event seminar as part of UCD’s Work Smarter Together event in March with Dr. Jimmy Muldoon representing Chemistry. Mass Spectrometry lab managers in UCD gave short presentations describing the instrumentation within their facilities and the range of techniques available. A recurring theme was the need for sustainable long-term investment in equipment, servicing support and training to achieve the utmost from such advanced techniques and instrumentation.

The Guiry Group has featured on the cover of the Journal of Organic Chemistry, January 2019 with their article "Development of and Recent Advances in Pd-Catalyzed Decarboxylative Asymmetric Protonation". Using the Irish sport of hurling as the inspiration for the cover, the UCD playing fields and water tower can be seen clearly. Congratulations to Dr. Cian Kingston & Dr. Jinju James.

Congratulations to Prof. Patrick Guiry who received two Irish Research Council awards a for project entitled "Study on Biological Effects of Imidazole Substitution Pattern and BCP-containing LXA4 Analogues" with PhD student Benjamin Owen and for "Novel Axially Chiral P,N Ligands for Asymmetric Catalysis" with PhD student Cian Reid (BSc Chemistry UCD).

Congratulations to PhD student Eduardo de Morais from the Sullivan Group who was awarded a prize for his rapid fire presentation at the MRS Fall Meeting in Boston. The presentation was part of a symposium on Nanomaterials and Nanomanufacturing for Sustainability.

Congratulations and best wishes to all our MSc and PhD graduates who were conferred this week:

Owen Hickey, Clara Zehe, Huan Zhang and Zhengpengzi Chen were awarded MSc degrees and Cai Qi, Kevin Gahan, Brian Gaynor, Jinju James, Darren Lawlor and Alberto Romano Corrochano were awarded PhD degrees.

Congratulations to UCD Chemistry's Professor Kenneth Dawson who has been included in a list of Highly Cited Researchers 2018, compiled by Clarivate Analytics. The list is a citation analysis of researchers who are among the top 1% most cited for their year of publication in one of 21 fields of study. The ranking includes 17 Nobel laureates.Highly Cited Researchers 2018, compiled by Clarivate Analytics.

Congratulations to UCD Chemistry's Professor Kenneth Dawson who has been included in a list of Highly Cited Researchers 2018, compiled by Clarivate Analytics. The list is a citation analysis of researchers who are among the top 1% most cited for their year of publication in one of 21 fields of study. The ranking includes 17 Nobel laureates.Highly Cited Researchers 2018, compiled by Clarivate Analytics.

The UCD Chemistry teams led by Assistant Professors Susan Kelleher & Tony Quinn were the happy recipients of cash and goody bags from Henkel at the SCI Annual Science Week Table Quiz which took place in Doyle's pub. Smiles all round! Pictured from left Samir Belhout, Susan Kelleher, Lucia Podhorska, Colm Delaney & Jessica McFadden.

The NMR and Nanomaterials Group recently reported a novel method to prepare suspensions of magnetic iron oxide nanoparticle assemblies.The article was featured on the cover of the most recent edition of Small. The novelty lies in the mechanism which is driven by depletion of stabilising ligands onto a chloroform‐water interface, while the size distribution narrows over time.Congratulations to Jenny Merlin (and others) on the paper and thanks to Eoghan MacMahon and Patricia Monks for the excellent artwork. Read it here (opens in a new window)https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smll.201870205

Congratulations to Katie McGarry and Edward Gannon who received the 2018 MSc Negotiated Learning Intel scholarship award. They are both graduates of our school (Katie from the BSc Med Chem/Chem Bio in 2017, Edward from the BSc Chem in 2018). The awards are worth €3,000 each and 16 in total were awarded in UCD this year across different MSc/MEng degrees.

We were honoured to welcome Professor Dervilla Donnelly to present the award named in her honour, the Professor Dervilla Donnelly Medal for Stage 4 BSc Medicinal Chemistry & Chemical Biology, to Cian Reid (pictured), Joseph Ruddy and Cathal Caulfield.

UCD Chemist, Dr. Susan Quinn has been recognised by the Royal Society of Chemistry for her work as part of an international research team investigating the relationship between the molecular origins of disease and the absorption of light energy by DNA. She was awarded the Rita & John Cornforth Award 2016 for collaborative research.