President’s Awards for Research 2015
The President’s Awards for Research have been presented today to Professor Andy Way, DCU School of Computing and Professor David Collings, DCU Business School in recognition of their commitment to excellence in their respective fields of research.
The Award in Science and Engineering was made to Professor Andy Way for his outstanding contribution to automatic machine translation. Since joining the University in 1991, Andy has taken a leading role within the University in the development of Computational Linguistics, the study of the application of computers to processing and analysing of natural language. Currently Deputy Director of ADAPT, the SFI-funded research centre, he is in the top 40 researchers, worldwide, in terms of Google SCHOLAR citations for Machine Translation in general, and one of the top half-dozen within his niche of Statistical Machine Translation. Andy has generated more than €9m in externally funded research from agencies including Science Foundation Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and the European Union.
Andy’s citation stated,
“Professor Andy Way has led the development of the hybrid approach to machine translation and helped it to become the dominant approach in the field. His far-sightedness in identifying this way before others and his ability to manage a large research centre, coupled with his experience of working in industry and his exceptional research output make him a worthy recipient of this award.”
Professor David Collings was the recipient of the Award in the Humanities and Social Sciences for his contribution to the development of scholarships in the field of human resource management (HRM) in Ireland and internationally.
Delivering the citation, Professor Brian MacCraith said,
‘David is a pre-eminent scholar in human resource management internationally, particularly in the areas of talent management and global mobility. His research output is truly outstanding as regards quantity, quality and impact. He has published over 40 peer-reviewed journal articles, 43 book chapters and has edited 7 books. His research appears in top ranked international journals and three of his papers are ranked in the top one per cent of cited papers in the field of Economics and Business according to the ISI database…. David’s external research profile brings significant prestige to DCU and reinforces the reputation of the Business School as a leading international centre for HRM research.”
David is currently a Visiting Professor at King’s College London and has held similar positions at Strathclyde University and Reykjavik University. He is head of the Human Resource Management and Organisational Psychology group at DCU, the largest and most prolific group of its kind in Ireland. David has played a key role in the development of research both at group and school level since joining DCU.
Congratulating both recipients, Professor MacCraith said,
“Today’s awards celebrate one of the key elements of what DCU is all about - excellence in research and the bar are always been maintained very high. Our two recipients reflect the quality and international significance of the research outputs from DCU.”
Today’s event also included highlights from DCU’s Research and Enterprise Hubs and information about the new support structures for research which have been developed as part of the DCU Research and Innovation Strategy.