Profile – Prof. Brian Leavy

Brian Leavy is AIB Professor of Strategic Management in DCU Business School since 1994, and has been with the university since 1981. He is a former dean of the Business School and is currently the Head of the Management and Information Systems Group, and Academic Director of the School’s executive education programmes.

His research interests lie in the areas of strategic leadership, competitive analysis, supply chain strategy, industry evolution and strategy innovation. He is currently collaborating in the area of industry evolution, focusing on the study of the process and pattern of industry change at maturity, particularly in industries, like wholesaling, where the influence of technology is not predominant and the concept of industry life cycle has somewhat limited explanatory power.. Much of his more recent research is quite closely linked to the university’s Business and Innovation theme, as reflected in such recent papers as “Creativity: the new imperative” in the Journal of General Management and a “A leader’s guide to creating an innovation culture”, recently published in Strategy & Leadership

He is a contributing editor of the Emerald journal, Strategy & Leadership, and is the author/co-author of three books, Key Processes in Strategy published by Thomson Learning, Strategy and General Management (with J.S Walsh of UCC), published by Oak Tree Press, and Strategy and Leadership (with David Wilson of Warwick Business School), published by Routledge.

Profile – Prof. Liam Gallagher

Liam Gallagher is Professor of Finance and Head of the Economics and Finance Group within DCU Business School. His research centres on the use of applied econometrics in modelling the behaviour of financial markets. In particular, (i) investigating the linkages between macroeconomic time series and stock price behaviour and (ii) dynamic models of asset price behaviour. The latter area involves collaborations with international researchers from the UK and the US and is one of the four themes of research in Quantitative Finance undertaking at DCU. This involves leading two research teams investigating, one investigating nonlinear dynamic asset models and the other non-normal (higher order moments) asset price behaviour. Using derived theoretical models the research will also consider a number of applications of this approach: nonlinear interdependencies among international financial markets and asset classes; nonlinear stochastic volatility and financial risk management; empirical testing of market microstructure theories of the firm; predictability in asset price movements; mean reversion in asset prices; stochastic volatility and option pricing; higher order moments and risk factors; and performance of hedge funds and pensions.

Professor Gallagher is co-editor (with Mark P. Taylor) of Speculation and Financial Markets, Edward Elgar, 2002. He has published widely in international peer-reviewed journals, including, Southern Economic Journal, Economic Inquiry, Applied Financial Economics, Economic Letters, Manchester School, Applied Economics, and Scottish Journal of Political Economy.

Profile – Professor Michael Scott

Michael is currently Head of the School of Computing. His team are investigating the implementation and application of Identity-based cryptography, and other cryptographic schemes based on bilinear pairings on special elliptic curves. He is a co-inventor of the BKLS algorithm which is the most commonly used method to calculate these pairings.

New applications such as a method of digital signcryption have been invented and patented by Michael and his team of researchers. Joint work with researchers from Royal Holloway College in London has resulted in the recent discovery of the new and very efficient η_T pairing.

Current research efforts are concentrated on implementing pairing-based cryptography on smart-cards, such as the “sim” card of a mobile phone, with a view to integrating pairing-based cryptography, to secure mobile applications. This work is funded by Enterprise Ireland.

Profile – Professor Paul Whelan

Paul is a Professor in the School of Electronic Engineering and holds a Personal Chair. Paul setup the Vision Systems Laboratory and its associated Vision Systems Group in 1990 and currently serves as its director. He also serves on the steering committee of the national centre for excellence in information and communications technology: RINCE. He was also responsible for the establishment and on-going management (1995-2000) of the World Wide Web based Remote Access to Continuing Engineering Education (RACeE) initiative.

Paul’s research interests include image segmentation, and its associated quantitative analysis (specifically mathematical morphology, colour-texture analysis) with applications in computer/machine vision and medical imaging (specifically computer aided detection and diagnosis and focusing on translational research).

As well as publishing over 100 peer reviewed papers, Paul has also co-edited 3 books. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE a Chartered Engineer and a member of the IEE and IAPR. Paul is also a member of a range of computer vision related conference program committees and acts as a reviewer for a number of the main computer/machine vision journals.

Profile – Professor Ian Marison

Professor Ian Marison was appointed to the post of Professor of Bioprocess Engineering and Head of the School of Biotechnology in September 2005. Prior to his appointment in DCU he was employed at the Laboratory of Chemical and Biological Engineering of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), in Lausanne and was co-founder of Inotech Encapsulation AG, now Inotech Biotechnologies Ltd of Basel Switzerland.

The main theme of his research activities is integrated bioprocessing. Thus a major part of his work involves the development of animal and microbial cell bioprocesses, for the production of small molecules and biologically active compounds including bioethanol, organic acids, carotenoids (e.g. astaxanthine), antibiotics (e.g. semi-synthetic penicillins and cephalosporins) and a wide variety of recombinant proteins ranging from monoclonal antibodies, avidine, biopesticides and EPO to antimicrobial peptides. The key to these processes is the development of on- line monitoring and control systems based on spectroscopic techniques, such as FTIR, Raman, optical, fluorescence and capacitance, combined with gas analysis and calorimetry to enable on-line formulation of mass and energy balances to describe the process. In this way, on- line control systems may be developed to enable high cell density, high productivity processes to be created. These may then be combined with novel cell separation and downstream processing techniques, for continuous cell removal or recycle (perfusion cultures), in-situ product recovery (ISPR) and to overcome product inhibition.Recent work has branched into the area of environmental engineering through the discovery of cationic peptides and nanocapsules with strong activity as bioflocculents, antimicrobials and potentially larvicides, while being harmless to humans. An extension of this work has yielded novel biofiltration units based on biomass.

Profile – Professor Tia Keyes

Professor Tia Keyes lectures in physical chemistry in the School of Chemical Sciences. Tia joined DCU as a lecturer in physical chemistry in September 2002 and had previously held lectureship in physical chemistry for four years prior to this at Dublin Institute of Technology where she was a founder member of the FOCAS Institute. Tia is a member of the National Centre for Sensor Research and the SFI CSET funded Biomedical Diagnostics Institute. Tia was awarded the Presidents Research Award for 2006.

At the heart of her research is molecular spectroscopy and photophysics, the interaction of light with matter. In particular the development of novel molecules in which colour and light emitting properties are precisely and predictably controlled through a fundamental understanding of their electronic behaviour. Such materials have recently been applied to electrochromic displays which can be controlled synthetically to provide electrically switchable colours in the visible region or in regions outside of human perception. The development of multicomponent materials for sensing, exploiting luminescence and Raman signals is an important element of Tias work. Particularly the development of substrates for surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy and surface immobilized supermolecules capable of encapsulating an analyte or supporting a protein structure in proximity to a surface. Also, a long standing goal has been the development of supramolecular nanoelectronic materials. Molecular hosts such as cyclodextrin which are appended with light emitting and surface binding molecules have been produced. These provide a means of self assembling multiple components into interfacial structures which can be addressed through light and electricity for next generation electronics and solar energy conversion.

Profile – Professor Michael Cronin

Professor Michael Cronin is Director of the Centre for Translation and Textual Studies. His research over the years has focused on how recognition of linguistic diversity is vital to a proper understanding of the human condition. He is the author of a number of titles which include Translating Ireland: Translation, Languages, Identities (Cork University Press, 1996) Across the Lines: Travel, Language and Translation (Cork University Press, 2000) Translation and Globalization (Routledge, 2003), The Irish Language in the New Century/An Ghaeilge san Aois Nua (Cois Life, 2005) and Translation and Identity (Routledge, 2006).

Professor Cronin was awarded the Canadian Association of Translation Studies/Vinay Darbelnet Prize for Across the Lines in 2000 and he is also the recipient of the Prix du Québec. He is a leading researcher in Fiontar and a central concern of his research interests is situating the Irish language in a global context..

This year Professor Cronin was appointed to the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS), the Royal Irish Academy and the Humanities and Social Sciences Council of the French National Research Agency.

Profile – Dr Pat Brereton

Dr Pat Brereton is Deputy Director of the Centre for Society Information and Media (SIM) His latest book, Hollywood Utopia – Ecology in Contemporary Hollywood Cinema (Intellect Books, 2005) has been favourably reviewed in publications from the fields of film studies, ecology and philosophy. He is currently preparing two invited book chapters on ecology and film. An Encyclopaedia of Irish Cinema, co-authored with School of Communications colleague, Dr Roderick Flynn, has been submitted to the publisher, Scarecrow Press, and is due to appear in 2006. Dr Brereton has previously had a Guide to Media Education published (Continuum, 2001). He is a member of the editorial board of the new media journal, Convergence, and is guest editor of a special issue in 2006 of that journal on DVD special features.