The School of Physics is delighted to receive the Athena Swan bronze award
December 2022: The Athena SWAN charter is an international framework used to support and transform gender equality in higher education and research for both students and staff. The School of Physics is the recipient of the Athena SWAN Bronze award following a successful conversion of the School's prior Institute of Physics IOP Juno award. The Athena SWAN award was celebrated at ATU Castlebar on Nov. 8th and again in UCD on December 12th 2022. In the picture (left-to-right): Prof. Emma Sokell (Head of School), Sarah Fink (Head of Athena SWAN Ireland), Dr. Brian Vohnsen (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Co-Chair in the School) and Prof. Colin Scott (Vice-President for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion).
HEAVYMETAL - where in the Universe do heavy elements get made?
November 2022: The School of Physics congratulates the team awarded funding in the 2022 European Research Council Synergy call. The project, HEAVYMETAL aims to take a big step in explaining the explosions following neutron star mergers by spectroscopically dissecting kilonovae and connecting these observations to the physical properties of each neutron star merger. In doing so, they will probe the origin of the heavy elements, and delineate the nuclear and astrophysical pathways that created them – the so-called 'r-process'. The team will try to decipher the details of the observed spectra for the first time and use that information to gain unprecedented insight into the physical processes of the merger.
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UCD @ IoPI Spring Weekend 2022
March 2022: The IOP Ireland Spring Weekend Meeting was held this year in Cork on March 12th, 2022. The UCD School of Physics was pleased to support three PhD students presenting posters for the Rosse Medal competition.
We wish to congratulate Parinaz Mosaddeghi Amini, who received third place in the Rosse Medal competition. Her work relates to 'Multiscale Modelling of Bovine Milk Protein Interacting with Metallic Iron and Aluminium. She is funded by SFI and supervised by Assoc. Prof. Vladimir Lobaskin of UCD School of Physics and Co-supervised by Dr. Yulia Subbotina.
In addition, we congratulate Bill Wells Kamtchou (Characterisation of a novel Timepix3 detector for its suitability as a Compton imaging detector for Nuclear Medicine applications) & and Patrick Wong (Model of a Strongly Correlated Interacting Topological Insulator) for their poster presentations at this event.
The 2022 Rosse Medal was awarded to Sarah Cameron from Ulster University.
pSTEM Women & Girls Event 2022
February 2022: UCD School of Physics was delighted to welcome in-person undergrad students, postgraduate students, post doctoral, academic staff, administrative and technical staff associated with UCD Physics to an informal coffee and cake morning in the Physics Common room. The event was well attended, lively, and celebrated pSTEM initiatives ongoing within the School on this very special day. It gave the opportunity to all to discuss informal physics topics and ask questions. Many research groups and staff displayed images of their recent research highlights. It was a pleasure to host an in-person event safely after much social distancing.
A postgraduate social event was also held in the common room in February. Our thanks to Amanda Donohoe & Conor Foy as postgraduate reps for hosting this event, and for giving a social platform to many new and existing postgrads to meet in-person.
Grant to Develop All-Island Approach to Quantum Information & Technology Awarded
January 2022: The Irish Research Council project EQUITY: Eire Strategy for Quantum Information and Technology has been awarded to Dr. Steve Campbell through the council's New Foundations program. The grant, funded and administered in conjunction with the Shared-Island initiative from the Department of the Taoiseach, aims to get an accurate snap-shot of the quantum related activity across the whole island of Ireland to aid in developing a cohesive plan for impact in this area. The funds will provide support for several workshops bringing together a wide variety of stakeholders to discuss and identify the most promising avenues moving forward.
UCDs Bill Kamtchou wins Irish Association of Physicists in Medicine Young Investigator Grant
Nov 2021 - The School of Physics would like to congratulate Bill Kamtchou who was recently awarded the Irish Association of Physicists in Medicine (IAPM) Young Investigator Grant (YIG) for 2021. The Young Investigator Grant is awarded annually to an IAPM member on the basis of competitive peer review to support a research project in any area relating to medical physics and bioengineering. The grant aims to support researchers early in their career. Bill is a SIRAT funded scholar in the School of Physics who is conducting a PhD research project on the application of the novel Timepix3 detector, developed by the Medipix collaboration at CERN, to clinical medical applications. Specifically, the grant will support his work on the application of the Timepix3 to the development of a Compton camera for Nuclear Medicine imaging.
UCD SoP spin-out PEARlabs wins 'Viewers’ Choice Award'
Nov 2021: Congratulations to PEAR labs, an early-stage UCD spin-out supported by NovaUCD, on winning the Viewers' Choice Award at yesterday's Enterprise Ireland Big Ideas 2021 showcase event. Great news for Dominic Zerulla and Jurgen Osing. The Pearlabs team in UCD Physics, led by Prof. Dominic Zerulla, has developed imaging technology that enables real-time nanoscale optical microscopy. This aims to transform our understanding of processes such as cell signalling and cell proliferation in cancer. Using super resolution imaging technology, PEARlabs can produce live video images with 10-times improved spatial resolution at video rate without destroying samples.
Enterprise Ireland success for the Ultrafast and NanoOptics Research Group
Sept 2021: Prof. Zerulla’s research group in UCD Physics is providing the nanotechnology behind PicoGlaze’s environmentally friendly technology. The invention is capable of dynamically changing the thermal radiation and absorption characteristics of glass windows. The technology is based on electric field-assisted alignment of highly anisotropic molecules which act as antennae between two glass sheets controllable through the application of a modulated small electric field. This switching alters the thermal radiation properties of the window system – thus enabling end users to allow heat into/out of their buildings as required. Alignment of anisotropic material in the layer alters the thermal radiation properties of the glass. Enterprise Ireland has just awarded a commercialisation grant for the commercial exploitation of the disruptive technology aiming for significant energy savings in glazed buildings and hence reduction of our carbon footprint.
Enterprise Ireland funding success for the Advanced Optical Imaging Group
May 2021: The School congratulates Associate Prof. Brian Vohnsen and the Advanced Optical Imaging group on securing funding from Enterprise Ireland in conjunction with industry to develop ophthalmic instrumentation. The funding comes from Enterprise Ireland's highly competitive Innovation Partnership Programme which supports research working towards the development of new and improved products, processes and services, helping to generate new knowledge and know-how.
Dr. Donal MacKernan awarded NovaUCD Licence of the Year
March 2021: The School of Physics is congratulates Dr. Donal MacKernan who is the recipient of the 2021 NovaUCD Licence of the Year Award for the development of a disruptive molecular switch platform technology. During 2020 this technology was licensed by NovaUCD to a US-based company Fionnachtain Inc with an initial application as a point-of-care medical diagnostic for COVID-19 and influenza. The molecular switch platform is a specialised hinge protein with sensor and function domains and can be manufactured using standard recombinant protein technology. The flexibility of the design allows a wide variety of applications including medical diagnostics, food and environmental testing, and therapeutics.
SFI Frontiers for the Future Success
November 2020: Staff in the School have secured a total of €2M in funding for two projects in the first SFI Frontiers for the Future Programme. Prof. Emma Sokell and Dr. Fergal O’Reilly will lead the project "xLuminate: nanoimaging and spectroscopy enabling brilliant tuneable, laboratory-scale x-ray source technology" which will enable research on a broad range of scientific and industrial applications, currently only available at large scale research facilities, to be conducted on a laboratory scale. While Prof. Lorraine Hanlon will direct "Building on EIRSAT-1: Nanosatellites as a disruptive technology platform for innovation and research in the global space sector" to develop an industry-academia collaboration focussed on accelerating new space mission and payload concepts, enabled through transformative tools for the rapid design and integration of payloads with a nano-satellite (
SiriusXT Secure €2.35 million
October 2020: SiriusXT together with two UCD researchers, have been awarded a total of €2.35 million in funding for a disruptive photonics technology project through Horizon 2020, the EU's research and innovation programme. The aim of the 4-year CoCID (Compact Cell-Imaging Device) project, which is being led by SiriusXT, is to provide insights into the cellular origins of viral diseases including; hepatitis C, hepatitis E, herpesvirus and SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, and to aid in the development of novel therapeutics using the company’s novel soft x-ray microscope.
Student Success at the INAM
September 2020: UCD PhD student Emma Callis was announced as one of two winners of the 2020 Peter Curran award for the best student talk at the Irish National Astronomy Meeting (INAM). Her winning presentation described her research into the explosion of massive stars as supernovae, and how material shed by stars in their final years can affect how they appear when they explode. Seán Brennan was also recognized with an honourable mention in the 2020 Peter Curran awards for a talk on observations of a giant outburst from a massive star. Both Emma and Seán are PhD students working in the supernovae and explosive transients group with Dr. Morgan Fraser at UCD (sn.ie).
SiriusXT shortlisted for Knowledge Transfer Ireland Impact Award
October 2020: The School of Physics spin-out SiriusXT has shortlisted for the Commercialisation Impact Award. This Award recognises and celebrates knowledge transfer success that has arisen through licensing or creation of a spin-out company from an Irish publicly funded research organisation. Until recently soft x-ray such microscopes could only be operated in football stadium-sized facilities due to the size of conventional soft x-ray sources. However, based on research carried out at UCD over many years, SiriusXT has developed and patented a miniaturised soft x-ray source, allowing it to build the world’s first commercial, lab-scale, soft x-ray microscope revolutionising cell imaging in disease and drug research.
