News & Events Archive 2012

December 2012

” Transitioning from post-doc to a leadership role; aspirations versus reality”
The career progression of post-doctoral research fellows at Imperial College London

Date:            Tuesday, 11th December
Time:            1.00pm
Location:     School of Maths Seminar Room, 20 Westland Row (Entrance through Hamilton Building) http://www.tcd.ie/Maps/map.php?q=27-29 
(A light lunch will be provided)

Dr Bergin will discuss soon-to-be-published quantitative data collected from Imperial College London examining the career aspirations of post-doctoral research fellows versus the reality of their next career move. The data was collected through two large-scale surveys, the first of post-doctoral staff in the three faculties at ICL (Natural Science, Engineering, and Medicine), and the second of all principal investigators on the destination of their last 5 post-doctoral employees. The resulting data was analysed by gender.

Imperial College London, where Dr. Bergin was based for three years, is a world leading research and teaching institution ranked 6th in the world QS university rankings.
To register your place please click here. All are welcome to attend.

November 2012

Successful People Management in Research

The rationale behind the workshop was to encourage and assist academics and researchers to think strategically about approaching people-management issues in order to ensure the goals of their research are met and the best possible results can be achieved.
A series of core topics identified from research into people-management theory were set out on tables. Participants worked together in groups of 3-5 to discuss the topics, share examples of their own experiences with similar issues, and brainstorm practical actions and solutions that could be applied in the future.
The format was designed so that participants would form small groups to collaborate on a specific topic for a given period of time (approx. 10 mins), before moving on to a new table, new group and new topic to continue the process.
Discussion revolved around some of the most commonly-identified recurring issues relating to people management, e.g.

• Leadership
• Delegation
• Communication practices
• Giving/receiving feedback
• Managing rivalries or conflict
• Motivating team members

At the end of the hour-long session, participants were asked to think up concrete action points based on the discussions so that the solutions explored during the workshop could be implemented in their working practice.
Thanks to all who attended and we hope it was a useful and enjoyable lunchtime!



Topic on Managing behaviour within your team/group

Topic on Leadership

Jaguar Land Rover Women in Engineering Networking Event at Engineers Ireland

Come and meet some of the most influential women in Engineering. WE (Women in Engineering) will be hosting a networking event in Dublin this November.

At the event you will have a chance to hear from some of the women who make things happen at the heart of our company. You will get to share experiences with fellow students, and find out more about what a career in engineering could be like, as well as life at Jaguar Land Rover. At the event there will be Jaguar Land Rover trainees and senior Jaguar Land Rover women engineers, they will talk about the projects they have worked on and the decisions that have influenced their careers to date.
There is also a fantastic opportunity to win a chance to come and visit Jaguar Land Rover and learn even more about our great company and inspiring products.

It’s free, there’s food and drink, so book your place now. Email us at events@jaguarlandrover.com. The Dublin event is happening this Thursday on the 22nd of November at Engineers Ireland at 17.45pm.

Please take the opportunity now to join the Jaguar Land Rover Facebook group for updates, discussions and most importantly connections that will last throughout your career. The link for the page is http://www.facebook.com/TheEngineeringNetworkForWomen.Please encourage your female engineering friends to come along.

TCD Associate Professor
"I'v done the Maths: there are too few women in science"

Dr. Aoife McLysaght, Associate Professor, Department of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin

Dr. Aoife McLysaght, recently wrote an article in the Irish times “I've done the maths: there are too few women in science”
In Trinity, only 38 per cent of the faculty (lecturers and professors) are women. It’s even worse within science and engineering, where 18 per cent are women. Throughout the university, men outnumber women in every academic grade, but especially so in science, and it gets worse the higher you look. If you consider only the top grade, full professors, in Trinity there are just 13 women, compared with 81 men.

It isn’t even different from the EU average. We call it the “scissors plot” because the two lines – one representing women and one men – cross over and get further apart, much like a drawing of a scissors.
There is some partial explanation in the fact that years ago, when many of the people who are now professors were first appointed to university jobs, there probably weren’t as many women in the workforce, for social and cultural reasons. However, even in the most junior lecturing grade, which is mainly made up of recent appointments from a time when the available pool should have been balanced, men are still more numerous than women.

To read more of this article visit the Irish Times website: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2012/1003/1224324777055.html

TCD Researcher reaches out through science blogging. 

Dr. Jessamyn Fairfield

As outreach and connecting science and society becomes of greater importance to funding bodies and decision makers many scientists are taking the opportunity to connect with the public through blogging. TCD reseach fellow Dr. Jessamyn Fairfield is one such scientist. Through her blog Let's talk About Science Jessamyn aims to raise public understanding of where material properties come from, how electronics work, and where we can see physics in our everyday lives. 

Past blog posts have covered both basic physics topics like chemical bonds  and band theory , as well as technological topics like transistors and electronic displays . Jessamyn finds the experience of writing about complex ideas in a more accessible way challenging but enjoyable, and usually learns something new while writing a post.

Jessamyn Fairfield is a postdoctoral researcher at CRANN at TCD, working on electronic devices made from metal nanowires. She grew up in Los Alamos, New Mexico and studied in Berkeley and Philadelphia before coming to Ireland. Her posts on Let's Talk About Science, a blog she runs alongside Erin Hardee of the Dundee Science Centre, focus on the basic physics of electronic devices and are aimed toward the general public.

To read what Jessamyn has been blogging on most recently check out http://letstalkaboutscience.wordpress.com/

Proactively Developing Your Career Using Social Media

Thursday 25 October at 6.30pm,
Long Room Hub,
Trinity College Dublin

Dublin University Women Graduates’ Association Event

With the growth of social media and social networking, you are probably viewing or even proactively using social media as part of your day to day role for research, to connect to colleagues and to keep up to date with trends in your industry.  But have you considered how social media can also support you in your career – from raising your profile with people who can influence your career progression, to supporting your career development plan and even help you in your job search?

In this event renowned careers specialist Krishna De will cover five simple steps you can take to make sure that you get the maximum benefit from free and low cost online technologies to support your career progression.

The talk will be following by a prosecco reception with opportunities for networking.

This event held in the new Long Room Hub building adjacent to the Arts Building is open to both members and non-members of the Dublin University Women Graduates’ Association.

Event Fee: €25

For more information contact Deirdre Ahern dahern@tcd.ie

September 2012

'Integrity and Quality in Universities: Accountability, Excellence and Success',
A Royal Irish Academy Public Lecture: Thursday, 27 September, 2012

The Royal Irish Academy invites you to a RIA public lecture by Baroness Onora O’Neill on 'Integrity and Quality in Universities: Accountability, Excellence and Success’ at 6pm Thursday 27 September 2012 in Academy House, 19 Dawson Street. Onora O’Neill is a prominent political philosopher, who has written widely on ethics, international justice, bioethics and the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. She also works on questions of trust and accountability in public life. O’Neill has occupied numerous academic posts, and is a former President of the British Academy, Chair of the Nuffield Foundation, Professor of Philosophy at Cambridge University. She is a foreign honorary member of the Royal Irish Academy and chair of the Academy’s 2012 Strategic Review Committee. 

There will be a short reception for all guests at 6pm, with the lecture starting at 6:30pm.
All are welcome to attend the lecture.
To register for free please follow this link: http://ria.ie/Events/Events-Listing/Academy-Lecture--%E2%80%98Accountability--Excellence-and-S.aspx

Female researchers and designers team up for poster competition

As part of the up-coming TWIST (Towards Women in Science & Technology) event in Science Gallery, WiSER (Women in Science & Engineering Research) are offering the chance for five female researchers from STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) disciplines to participate in a unique project.

Each researcher will be teamed up with a professional designer and together they will create an academic poster with a difference. This is a fantastic opportunity to work with a design professional and gain some insight in communicating your research in the visual medium. The designers, in turn, get to tackle the challenge of presenting complex scientific concepts in a visually appealing form.

These posters will be displayed at the three day event celebrating and forging initiatives that aim to increase the interest of STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) amongst students, with a particular focus on girls, by demonstrating different ways of communicating science.

Invitees to the event include companies, universities, schools, science centres, individuals and government funded programmes as well as TWIST's partners.

For further information or to take part contact Sarah Quinn. The deadline for researchers is 12th of September, whilst the deadline for designers is 17th of September.

July 2012

Women in Science ESOF 2012

On Wednesday 11 July at 7.30pm as part of the ancillary events on offer to conference participants a reading of the play Belle Moral" by Canadian playwright Ann-Marie McDonald is being performed by the Irish theatre group Rough Magic. On Friday the 13th a reading of "Copenhagen" (a play about the Heisenberg/Bohr meeting) will be performed by the same group. There will be a post-show discussion after the readings lead by Caroline Roughneen, WiSER Director and Patricia Reilly (member of the cabinet of the EU Research and Innovation commissioner  Maire Geoghegan). Tickets to both events are available here.

Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF) 2012: TWIST Session

The EU funded project TWIST (Towards Women In Science and Technology) of which WiSER is a partner will be hosting an information session and presentation at the EC stand dedicated to Responsible Research and Innovation and Science in Society in the ESOF exhibition area on Thursday the 11th from 2-5pm. 

Dr. Silvia Giordani wins Women In Science Fellowship

Dr. Silvia Giordani has been awarded one of four prestigious 2012 L’Oréal-UNESCO UK & Ireland For Women in Science Fellowships (FWIS) for her research on a new avenue towards ‘smart’ medicines.
The other 2012 recipients of the UK & Ireland L’Oréal UNESCO For Women in Science Awards are Dr Katrina Lythgoe, from Imperial College London; Dr Claire Spottiswoode, from the University of Cambridge; and Dr Geetha Srinivasan, from Queen’s University Belfast. 

The fellowships, now in their fourteenth year internationally, promote the importance of ensuring greater participation of women in science by offering awards to outstanding female researchers.
The fellowships have been designed to provide practical help for the winners to undertake research in their chosen fields.

The four outstanding female scientists, who are all working on postdoctoral studies, were each awarded fellowships of £15,000 to spend on whatever they may need to continue their research, from buying scientific equipment to paying for childcare or travel.
The four winners were selected by a panel of eminent scientists, chaired by Professor Dame Athene Donald DBE FRS - Professor of Experimental Physics, University of  Cambridge.

June 2012

INTEGER Site Visit, School of Natural Science

The site visit took place between 9.30am-3.40pm in the Luce Hall Seminar Room.

The advisors facilitating the site visit were Dr. Sean McWhinnie and Ms. Caroline Fox

For more information please click here

A WiSER Vision for the 21st Century Workplace

On International Women’s Day 2012 WiSER held a workshop in the Science Gallery. A WiSER Vision for the 21st Century Workplace, a blue print for a workplace of science, technology, engineering and maths that is accessible, sustainable and worthwhile for all employees, was drafted the 30+ professional women with a background in these fields who attended. A video clip illustrating how the women worked together to produce 10 principles for a workplace that works for women and what they had to say is now online, click here to view.

TCD researcher awarded prestigious IASLC Fellowship

Trinity College Dublin researcher Dr Anne-Marie Baird has been awarded an International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) Fellowship, one of only four such fellowships awarded in 2012 to further her research on lung cancer through studying a family of tyrosine kinase receptors in mesothelioma. 

Each year the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) honors young researchers with the Fellowship and Young Investigator Awards. Candidates, representing North America, Asia and Europe, are awarded research funding for two years after competing with a global pool of applicants. Applications are evaluated by an international scientific review panel for their merit, innovation and potential impact on the management of lung cancer.

The goal for IASLC is to reward scientific excellence and to encourage innovative research in lung cancer prevention and translational medicine worldwide.

Dr.Anne-Marie Baird is a Research Fellow in the Thoracic Oncology Research Group in the Institute of Molecular Medicine, St. James Hospital, Dublin. Her current post-doctoral work is studying a family of tyrosine kinase receptors in mesothelioma. Baird was awarded the fellowship for the proposal “Targeting NF-κB to re-sensitize cisplatin resistant NSCLC cells”

To learn more about IASLC Fellowships click here

To view Anne-Marie’s research profile click here 

March 2012
Thursday the 15th March - Springboard Session 1

The first Springboard session will take place. For more info on Springboard and to read what past participants have had to say about the programme click here

February 2012

Tuesday 14th February- WiSER Network Event

Time: 1-2pm
Location: Large Lecture theatre, O'Reilly Institute

WiSER Workshop: A WiSER approach to the challenges of research

WiSER presents an interactive problem solving session where attendees, in small groups, share their experience and knowledge and propose solutions to common problems and barriers encountered in research and along the academic career path. 
Light refreshments will be provided.

January 2012

9th January WiSERs Champion Programme
The first Champion Advisory Board meeting will take place where WiSER Champions from within the Schools in the Faculty of Engineering, Maths and Science meet to advise and review WiSER activities and also to strategize on further strengthening and developing the WiSER network.