13 TCD Academics Receive SFI Principal Investigator Awards

Jun 20, 2011

The Minister for Research and Innovation, Seán Sherlock, recently announced funding for 13 Trinity College Dublin scientists through Science Foundation Ireland’s Principal Investigator Awards.  TCD secured 13 out of 44 awards, representing the largest number of awards awarded to a third level institution. 

The €44 million investment for 44 Principal Investigators research teams forms part of a range of measures to support innovation in Ireland.  The investment, which is supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation through Science Foundation Ireland’s (SFI) Principal Investigator (PI) programme, will directly support close to 300 high-quality jobs over the next five years. 

Speaking at a showcase of the scientific research work at Trinity College’s Science Gallery, Minister Seán Sherlock said: “Spanning SFI’s research portfolio, from Life Sciences to ICT to Energy, the PI Programme has been instrumental in helping Ireland to become a formidable, emergent scientific force on the international stage in recent years.  Traditionally, researchers supported by the PI programme over the past decade have proven to be the essential individual building blocks of the strong scientific edifice that has emerged in Ireland.  Through today’s showcase of some of our top-scientific talent, we are seeing that next layer which will fortify and bolster both our scientific network, enhance our reputation internationally and crucially, also connect with a number of key industry partners”.

The 13 Trinity College Dublin recipients of the Principal Investigator Awards include:

Professor Thorfinnur Gunnlaugsson, School of Chemistry
Lanthanide self-assembly structures as novel luminescent materials.

Professor Fiona Newell and Professor Carol O’Sullivan, School of Psychology and School of Computer Science and Statistics
Captavator: using principles of human multisensory perception to endow virtual agents with maximum social appeal.

Professor Vinny Cahill, School of Computer Science and Statistics.
Self-organising Architectures for Autonomic Management of Smart Cities.

Dr Mike Lyons, School of Chemistry
Redox and catalytic properties of hydrated metal oxide electrodesfor use in energy conversion and storage devices.

Dr Louise Bradley, School of Physics
Plasmonic enhanced nanophotonic devices.

Professor Georg Duesberg, School of Chemistry and CRANN
Graphene Engineering for Electronics and Sensing (GREES).

Professor Luiz Da Silva, School of Engineering
The Self-Architecting Wireless Network: Transient Ownership, Information Sharing, and Learning.

Professor Michael Coey, School of Physics and CRANN
Nanoscale Interfaces and Spin Electronics.

Professor Sylvia Draper, School of Chemistry and CRANN
Compound Interest: Multiple Outputs from Light-emitting Materials.

Professor Michael Rowan, School of Medicine
Mechanisms to prevent disruption of synaptic plasticity in vivo.

Professor Padraic Fallon, School of Medicine
Exploiting helminths to induce novel regulatory mechanisms for therapies for inflammatory diseases.

Dr Adrian Bracken, School of Genetics and Microbiology
CHD5 interplay with Polycomb group proteins during lineage specification.

Dr Frank Wellmer, School of Genetics and Microbiology
Decoding the gene regulatory network controlling flower development in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana.