Stories from Our School

Polymer and metal samples developed in Dr Susan Kelleher’s lab at in the School of Chemical Sciences in DCU were launched for the moon aboard a new lunar rover to study the way moon dust sticks to different surfaces. 

These samples were produced in the School of Chemical Sciences and prepared by Dr Kelleher, and three members of her team - Dr Graham Reid, Dr James McCormack, and Dr Jessica McFadden. They are affixed to the wheel of the Rashid Lunar Rover, designed and constructed by engineers and scientists at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) in the United Arab Emirates. The Rashid Rover will be brought to the moon aboard the HAKUTO-R Mission 1 lunar lander, produced by Japanese space exploration company iSpace as part of their first mission to the moon.    

The project is part of a collaboration between Dr Kelleher, who works on producing nano- and micro patterned/structured surfaces at DCU, and Dr Aidan Cowley in the European Astronaut Centre in the European Space Agency (ESA), who have partnered with the MBRSC to develop samples of interest.

The aim of the mission is to study the adhesion of regolith (moon dust) onto different surfaces using a high resolution camera to gain an understanding on how it can be reduced. Moon dust is very sharp, dry and fine, and difficult to reproduce on Earth. It can interfere with electronics and how gaskets and seals work, and can be abrasive. 

Eight sample surfaces, a combination of polymer and metal samples with micro- and nano-scale patterns on their surface as well as unpatterned control samples, were prepared for the lunar rover in the labs at DCU last year with the help of funding from both Science Foundation Ireland and the Irish Research Council. After testing to ensure they can withstand harsh launch conditions, the samples were launched to the moon aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket scheduled on December 11th from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.

We are delighted to hear that Dr Andrew Kellett from DCU School of Chemical Sciences was named at the Solid State and Pharmaceutical Cluster (SSPC) Researcher of the Year for 2022. The SSPC is Science Foundation Ireland's Research Centre for Pharmaceuticals, where Dr Kellett is a Funded Investigator. 

Dr Kellett is Associate Professor of Inorganic and Medicinal Chemistry and leads a diverse research group in the area of inorganic medicinal chemistry, with a focus on discovery of metallodrug-nucleic acid interactions for biochemical and therapeutic application. He completed his B.Sc. in chemistry from NUI Maynooth, received his PhD under the guidance of Prof. Michael Devereux and Dr. Maureen Walsh in 2007 from the Dublin Institute of Technology, and was then appointed as A.F. Graves Postdoctoral Fellow at the Focas Research Institute from 2008 - 2011. In 2011 he joined DCU as lecturer of Inorganic Chemistry, in 2014 moved to lecturer of Inorganic and Medicinal Chemistry and was appointed to Associate Professor in 2017.

You can read more about the work of Dr Kellett and his team here.

The School of Chemical Sciences welcomed the public to our stand at the DCU Open Day 2021. It was great to meet people in person and tell them all about the programmes here in DCU. Dr Susan Kelleher, Dr Pat O Malley, Dr Ruairi Brannigan, and Dr John Gallagher all gave talks introducing DCU and the School to students and their parents. Postgraduates from the school demonstrated "puddle chemistry" experiments and a "Careers in Chemistry" display was on show. Getting us into the festive spirit, the technical team but together a fantastic "ChemisTree" featuring colourful compounds and solutions which wowed passers by. 

DCU School of Chemical Sciences research, Joyce O'Grady will be featured as part of the Agilent's Industry Insight "Agilent Science Futures – The Impact of Academia–Industry Relationships on the Next Generation of Scientists". Keep an eye out for Joyce's take on this important topic as the interviews with a number of PhD students across Europe are published.

https://www.technologynetworks.com/analysis/blog/agilent-science-futures-the-impact-of-academia-industry-relationships-on-the-next-generation-of-354734

Congratulations to Reabetswe Zwane for an excellent talk at the FameLab 2021 final. Reabetswe is currently completing her PhD with Dr Anthony Reilly in the School of Chemical Sciences, and is funded by the SFI research centre, SSPC. Her talk, entitled The Shape of Hair: Shedding Light on a Hairy Situation, outlined her interest in the scientific material properties of hair!