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President's Research Awards
29th January 2002
Dr Patrick McNally receives President's Award for microchip research
Dr Patrick McNally receives the 2001 President's Research Award in Science and Engineering for his outstanding contributions to Synchrotron X-ray Topography (SXRT). Dr McNally is a member of the School of Electronic Engineering, and is the founding Director of the Microelectronics Research Laboratory. This laboratory is a pivotal element within the nationally designated Research Institute for Network & Communications Engineering.
Dr McNally is one of Europe's foremost researchers in the area of silicon wafer investigation. Through the technique of Synchrotron X-ray Topography his work involves using light probes to identify impurities or damage in semiconductor materials. This technique is a million, million times more intense than a standard x-ray and enables Dr McNally to probe the silicon crystals at the micro and nanoscopic level without causing any interference or damage to the material.
Dr McNally's research work is used by the semiconductor industry (by companies such as Intel and SGS Thompson & Phillips) to improve their production processes and create better microchip devices. Dr McNally was the first to use synchrotron x-ray topography to visualise strain fields in packaged integrated circuits and he broke new ground with the first x-ray imaging of surface undulations due to misfit dislocations in silicon-germanium assemblies. His research team at DCU played an important role in developing Intel Pentium chips by analysing the strain imposed on the semiconductor material during the production process.
Speaking at the Awards, the President, Professor Ferdinand von Prondzynski, stressed the importance of the applied research undertaken by Dr McNally and his team. "Their work has had a significant impact on the success of the semiconductor industry which in turn is so important for the Irish economy.
Dr McNally is also working with colleagues in Germany and Finland on fundamental research into the absolute definition of the kilogram. It is just as important that universities such as DCU carry out fundamental research that ultimately leads to entirely new levels of scientific and engineering understanding." Said Professor von Prondzynski.
Dr Michael Cronin receives President's Research Award in Humanities & Social Sciences
Michael Cronin receives the 2001 President's Research Award in the Humanities and Social Sciences for his outstanding contribution to the field of Translation Studies. Over the last decade or so, Michael Cronin has been one of the most significant scholars in translation studies in Europe.
Dr Cronin has published three recent books that investigate how language, especially other people's language, and tensions between languages, affects the way we experience ourselves and the world. In Translating Ireland, Dr Cronin explores the vital role translation played in the political, cultural and linguistic development of Ireland from the Middle Ages right through to the 20th century. In Across the Lines, published in 2000, he probes the role language plays in contemporary encounters between travellers and their hosts around the globe, and in fictionalised accounts of extraterrestrial travel. His most recent work, Translating Tomorrow: Translation, Technology and Interculturality in a Global Age, looks to the future.
Speaking at the Awards the President, Professor Ferdinand von Prondzynski praised Dr Cronin's campaign for linguistic diversity. "Dr Cronin is wary of the kind of facile multiculturalism that would have everyone speaking and being spoken to in the same language. He has made us look seriously at how language has helped define our political and cultural histories and more importantly how it contributes to our national identity through tourism, literature and cultural characteristics."
Dr Cronin's scholarly achievements have already been celebrated in:
- Canada, where, in the past two years he has been awarded the Prix du Québec, and the CATS Vinay Darbelnet Prize for best translation studies book;
- Peru, where he was made Honorary Professor at the Univesidad Ricardo Palma, Lima in 2001; and in
- Ireland, where in 2000 he was awarded an Albert College Senior Fellowship by this University.
ENDS
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