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Courses at DCU

Prospective Students - Graduate Profiles - Science and Health

Prospective Students

Graduate Profiles - Science and Health

prospective students

DCU has over 25,000 graduates working in more than 30 countries in leadership positions in industry and academia, both in the private and public sector. Below are just a sample of the successful, rewarding career paths that graduates of our science and health degrees have pursued.
 

It's perhaps not the most obvious career choice for a science graduate, but Breandán de Gallaí, BSc in Applied Physics, is currently wowing audiences around the world as lead dancer with Riverdance. When Riverdance entered his life in April 1994, Breandán was teaching science and religion in Tallaght VEC. The day job was dropped as Riverdance got bigger and started touring, and Breandán estimates that he's now danced the lead more than 1,700 times around the world.

Gerry Shaw, BSc in Applied Physics, MSc in Physics, works for Teredyne Connection Systems. Having held several engineering and operational roles he is currently on a two-year assignment managing Total Quality Management/Total Safety Management (TQM/TSM). His jobs entail promotion of the tools and processes around TQM and introducing a TSM scheme in the Dublin and Cavan Plants. He has just been requested to take a 2-year assignment as TQM/TSM manager at division level and he is moving to New Hampshire in August. Gerry previously worked in test and process engineering roles for Amdahl and has taught operations management for Trinity College Dublin/Irish Management Institute.

Cait Ní Chleirigh, BSc in Applied Physics, is a senior integration engineer with Analog Devices in Limerick, where she has worked since graduation, developing and implementing new processes in the company's semiconductor fabrication facility. In the autumn of 2002, Cait moved to Boston to pursue a PhD at MIT's electrical engineering department working on next generation semiconductor devices. Cait received an MengSc in Microelectronics from UCC in 2000.

Clare Higgins, BSc in Applied Physics, joined Logica after graduation as a research engineer in the R&D section. She has since been promoted to software engineer with Logica. Her responsibilities include designing and developing telecommunications applications, presenting the applications to customers and staff and training staff on these products.

Dr John D. Coates, BSc in Biotechnology, is associate professor of microbiology at University of California, Berkeley. His major area of interest is geomicrobiology applied to environmental problems. John was the recipient of the 1998 Oak Ridge Ralph E. Powe Young Faculty Enhancement Award, the 2001 US Department of Defense SERDP Program Project of the Year Award, and the 2002 Southern Illinois University College of Science Researcher of the Year Award. He has authored and co-authored more than 60 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters and he sits on the editorial boards of the journals Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, and Geomicrobiology Journal. He is also co-founder and president of BioInsite LLC - a bioremediation company geared towards the use of microorganisms for solutions to environmental contaminant problems. John obtained his PhD in 1991 in Microbiology from University College Galway, Ireland.


Dr Ena Prosser, BSc in Biotechnology and PhD in Biotechnology, is appointed director of BioResearch Ireland (BRI), a government agency set-up in 1987. BRI is part of Enterprise Ireland (EI), the Irish state agency responsible for promoting Irish business. In her role, Ena leads a team located in five universities and they work with the universities and EI to promote new opportunities in university based Intellectual Property (IP) as well as playing a key role with the university technology transfer groups in facilitating new start-up biotechnology companies directly based on research from Irish universities. Before joining the agency, Ena was Director, Corporate Office of Technology at Elan Corp. PLC. Ena is also on the Board of Invent, DCU's innovation centre.

Dr. Allan B Masterson, PhD in Biotechnology, is a publication planning executive in the Strategic Publication Planning Department at Excerpta Medica Medical Communications (a subsidiary of Elsevier) where he coordinates the publication of data from global patient registries in the area of venous thromboembolism (deep vein thrombosis). Following a brief period of postdoctoral research at the National Cell and Tissue Culture Centre in DCU, he moved to the Vrije Universiteit Academic Hospital Amsterdam, the Netherlands in August 1999 to continue postdoctoral research in cancer immunotherapy at the Departments of Medical Oncology and Experimental Pathology. In autumn of 2003 he was a senior research scientist to the Department of Experimental Haematology at the famous Leiden University Medical Centre. With an eye on further education he began studying for an MBA in Life Sciences and Health in autumn 2004.

Peter Berry, BSc Biotechnology, is currently working for the Irish Equine Centre in Johnstown, Co. Kildare. The company supplies diagnostic, research, educational, pharmaceutical, quality control services to the Irish equine industry. Over the last number of years, the company has diversified and now provides a range of commercial tests for the food and agriculture industries including a western blotting based test for BSE which Peter is involved with. Prior to joining the Irish Equine Centre he worked as a part-time lecturer and research assistant at IT Sligo.

 
Dr Damien Boyd, BSc in Analytical Science and PhD in Chemical Methodologies, joined SmithKline Beecham (now GlaxoSmithKline) in Cork in 1994 as an analytical chemist responsible for new drug product introductions. He stayed in this role for 5 years during a very aggressive production period at the Cork plant. Following this, he joined the safety team at GlaxoSmithKline in 1999 as occupational hygienist and completed a two-year Diploma in Health, Safety and Welfare in University College Cork to supplement knowledge for this role. His major aim in this field is hazard control in all its forms.

Conor O'Flynn
, BSc in Analytical Science, has worked for Schering-Plough (Brinny) in Innishannon, Co.Cork since leaving DCU. His current position is technical scientist in the materials department of QC technical services. His core responsibilities are to co-ordinate all monograph updates to comply with the current pharmacopoeia, supervise the release of drug substance and raw materials to meet production requirements, and perform all third party vendor audits.

Deirdre Foxe, B.Sc. in Chemical Sciences, is a research lab manager for the MEG lab at Massachusetts General Hospital. At the MEG (Magnetoencephalography) lab, non-invasive techniques are used to measure magnetic fields resulting from small electrical currents produced when cells in the brain are active. The lab has many users from Harvard Medical School, MIT and MGH. Deirdre is also part of a clinical team that studies pre-surgical patients with medically intractable focal epilepsies.

Sandra Sweetman, Bachelor of Nursing Studies, is a Children's Nurse in Temple Street Hospital and is currently undertaking a Higher Diploma in Nursing (Sick Children's) in Temple Street. Her mother Mairead Sweetman also graduated from DCU in November 2002 with a BNS in Nursing. She is currently an Assistant Director of Nursing (Psychiatry) in St. Itas Hospital Portrane, Co Dublin.