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UCD PhD Student wins RIA / Irish Times
Chemistry Essay Competition.


An Italian scientist and former UCD PhD student, has won the Royal Irish Academy / Irish Times Prize for Young Chemists 2004. Dr Manuela Tosin won the prize with her essay on the sugar structures that support the complex interactions between living cells.

Having first come to Dublin seven years ago, on a three-month EU scholarship, Dr Tosin returned in 2001 to begin her PhD research at UCD under the supervision of Dr Paul Murphy, UCD School of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, in the area of ‘carbohydrate chemistry’. The aim of her PhD research was to create sugar molecules that could interact with protein receptors in a specific way, to trigger a specific type of
signalling.

On completion of her doctorate last year, Dr Tosin entered the Royal Irish Academy competition, which is sponsored by The Irish Times and AGB Scientific. The requirement for the competition was a 1,000-word essay which won Dr Tosin the award. Winning the competition enables Dr Tosin to go forward to compete for an international prize for young chemists, sponsored by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).

Dr Tosin is keen to return to Ireland at some stage in the future, to continue working in research, having found UCD a great and enthusiastic environment for research. Dr Tosin received funding from Enterprise Ireland and also from the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology’s Embark Initiative.

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