Trinity Students Receive Fulbright Awards

Jun 25, 2012

Eight Trinity College Dublin students were recently awarded prestigious Fulbright awards, representing the highest number of awards for any Irish institution.  Fulbright scholarships give Irish and American students, scholars and professionals the opportunity to study, lecture and research at top universities and institutions in Ireland and the US respectively.   The awards are jointly funded by the Irish and US governments under the Ireland-United States (Fulbright) Commission for Educational Exchange.

The successful Trinity recipients have been accepted at leading institutions across the US including NASA, Harvard, Berklee College of Music and UCLA.  A Trinity student also received one of the 13 Fulbright-Schuman awards which are open to citizens across 27 EU member states. This category promotes US-EU relations and is funded through the US State Department and the Directorate General for Education and Culture of the European Commission.

 Fulbright Awardees (back row l-r) Julian Shaw, Alice Cowman, Daniel Ryan, Padhraig Ryan. (front row l-r) Andrew Flynn, Natasa Paterson, Professor Jane Ohlmeyer, Vice-Provost for Global Relations, Adriana Bunea and Daniel Forde.

Speaking about Trinity’s success at this year’s Fulbright Awards, Trinity’s Vice Provost for Global Relations, Professor Jane Ohlmeyer said: “These awards recognise the breadth of scholarship taking place at Trinity College Dublin.  Whether studying Jazz Performance and Composition in Boston, researching solar storms at NASA or evaluating chronic disease management at Harvard Medical School, these students will make a valuable contribution by building relations between Ireland and the US, and fostering knowledge exchange in a range of disciplines.”

The Fulbright Awards are presented on an annual basis to Irish students, scholars and professionals to undertake postgraduate study and research at higher education, cultural and related institutions in the United States.  Applications are encouraged in all disciplines including the visual and performing arts.  Later in the year the Commission will welcome 13 US Fulbright Scholars and 3 US Fulbright Students to Ireland.

The next Fulbright Awards Competition 2013-2014 will open to applicants on Monday 27th August 2012.  For more information visit www.fulbright.ie

Trinity’s Fulbright Recipients 2012-2013

Adriana Bunea is completing her PhD in Political Science in the School of Social Science and Philosophy at Trinity College Dublin.  Adriana will be a Fulbright Schuman research scholar at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where she will conduct comparative research on EU and US lobbying on environmental issues.

Alice Cowman received the Fulbright – Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Student Award in Environmental Sciences and Policy.  Alice recently returned from Sierra Leone where she was working on business reform, energy and carbon management projects. She will undertake a Masters in Climate and Society at Columbia University specialising in climate change policy.

Andrew Flynn recently completed the LLB degree program in Law and French at Trinity College Dublin and is currently engaged in research on Irish and UK animal cruelty law under a grant from the Animal Legal and Historical Centre.  He will undertake an LLM at Harvard Law School where he will focus on constitutional and equality law.

Daniel Forde is a composer and musician from Dublin with a special interest in song writing. He will be attending Berklee College of Music, Boston to study Jazz Performance and Composition.
 
Natasa Paterson, the Fulbright – Enterprise Ireland Awardee, is a Dublin based composer and performer currently studying for a PhD in Trinity College Dublin.  Her research interests include the exploration of film and game scoring methods and the potential for augmented reality music composition. She will be attending the University of California Los Angeles's renowned Film Scoring program.

Daniel Ryan is a PhD candidate in Solar Physics at Trinity College Dublin and will be undertaking research on solar storms at NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre.

Padhraig Ryan is a pharmacist and a PhD candidate in Trinity College Dublin's Centre for Health Policy and Management.  He will evaluate a chronic disease management programme at Harvard Medical School.

Julian Shaw is a PhD candidate in the School of Chemistry at Trinity College Dublin. Julian will be researching novel methods for the synthesis of potential antidepressant compounds at the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla.