School of Chemistry News Archive
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".
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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.
