This year’s President’s Research Awards were presented today to four distinguished researchers from both DCU and its linked college, St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra.

The awards are presented annually to researchers who have excelled in the areas of Science and Engineering and in Humanities and Social Sciences.  Due to the exceptionally high standard of the applications received this year, it was decided to make two awards in each category. 

The recipients of the Humanities awards were Professor Kathy Monks, DCU Business School and Professor Mark Morgan, Faculty of Education, St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra.

Professor Oliver Dolly, DCU International Centre for Neurotherapeutics and Professor Noel O’Connor, DCU School of Electronic Engineering received awards for their research in the areas of Science and Engineering.

Professor Kathy Monks received the award for her outstanding contribution to the development of human resource management studies internationally and her contribution as founder and director of many initiatives such as the Irish Academy of Management, the Irish Journal of Management and the highly successful Learning, Innovation and Knowledge Research Centre at DCU.  See full citation.

Professor Mark Morgan, of the Education Department, St Patrick’s College Drumcondra, received the 2010 President’s Research Award for Humanities and Social Sciences, for his outstanding contribution not only to international research in the fields of Education Studies; but also for raising the international profile of St Patrick’s College as a centre of research excellence and innovation; and for his unstinting encouragement of his colleagues’ research endeavours.  See full citation.

Professor Oliver Dolly is a world leader in molecular neurobiology who has performed pioneering investigations that helped decipher a molecular basis for neuronal communication, especially identifying and structurally-characterising SNARE ( an acronym derived from "SNAP (Soluble NSF Attachment Protein) REceptors") proteins responsible for the quantal release of transmitters.

He was responsible for discovering a family of potassium channels in the brain that indirectly control fundamental processes in neurochemical transduction and he has made seminal discoveries in biochemistry that have radically changed the way in which people think about ion channel structure and function in human nerves. His research in elucidating the mode of action of toxins has led to significant clinical applications of major commercial importance and has resulted in many publications and patents. This work is being exploited in Ireland and in the US and exemplifies how fundamental research of the highest quality can lead to very significant medical-therapeutic developments with the capacity for industrial exploitation and job creation.  See full citation

Professor Noel O’Connor has made, and continues to make, significant contributions in basic research, in applied research and in the commercialisation of his research.  At a basic level his contributions are in the area of extracting context and semantics from all kinds of multimedia content. The outputs of his basic research transition into his applied research activities in areas like configurable and energy-aware hardware, social interaction with media and applications in personalised health and sports. His commercialisation activities (for which he was given a special award by DCU INVENT in December 2009) have just led to a company, in which DCU has an equity stake, taking up residence in DCU INVENT and licensing some of DCU’s technology, developed by Noel and his team.  See full citation

Mr Enda Connolly, CEO, Health Research Board was this year’s guest speaker.  Mr Connolly gave a talk entitled “The Future of Irish Health Research”, in which he highlighted the government’s commitment to health research.  The objectives of health research are to improve people’s health, transform patient care, put evidence in practice, drive innovation and support economic development.

Speaking at the ceremony, Professor Ferdinand von Prondzynski paid tribute to Professor Eugene Kennedy, for his commitment and dedication in his role as Vice President for Research.