Biological Research Society News
Inspirefest and Lennox Postgraduate of the Year - Congratulations to Kara Moran, winner of the 2016/17 Inspirefest and Lennox Postgraduate of the Year. Following a number of very competitive applications, Dr Anne Parle-McDermott and Dr Ciarán Fagan had the difficult task of selecting the winner. Kara was chosen based on her excellence in research and contributions to the School of Biotechnology and beyond over the last year.
The award was presented by Joe Mackle from Lennox on Friday, 24th March 2017. Kara received a €200 cash prize, a certificate of award, and a personalised trophy from Lennox along with a ticket to Inspirefest 2017, an international festival of technology, science, design and the arts with diversity and inclusion at its heart.
Our sincere thanks to Inspirefest and Lennox for their generous sponsorship, and to Dr. Anne Parle-McDermott and Dr. Ciarán Fagan for their time and effort in judging the competition.
Dr Siobhán Jordan – “Biotechnology and creativity – reflections on multidisciplinary degrees.” On Friday March 24th, DCU Biotechnology graduate Dr. Siobhán Jordan, currently CEO of Interface-The knowledge connection for business, gave a talk entitled “Biotechnology and creativity – reflections on multidisciplinary degrees”. The talk was an enlightening and inspiring look at Siobhán’s journey from undergraduate in the early days of DCU’s Biotechnology degree to director of a modern and innovative business in Scotland.
Many thanks to Dr Jordan for the fantastic talk and to Richard and the Institute of Biology Ireland for their kind sponsorship of the event.
BRS Partnership with the Aisling Project
The Aisling Project is an after school initiative in the Ballymun area for children deemed at risk. It provides homework supervision, a hot meal and after school activities to help in the child's development. The Aisling also provides a safe place for these children and works individually with each child to ensure their developmental needs are being met. There are currently four Aisling Project centres in Ballymun, three cater for children aged 7 to 12 or from 2nd class to 6th class. The fourth Aisling Project centre is a transition centre for children starting secondary school who still need a little help. The Aisling has grown from a small charity based out of a three bedroom flat in Ballymun to a multi centre, multi age group charity meeting the needs of nearly 100 children each year.
The BRS has teamed up with the Aisling Project to bring science to the children of Ballymun. We are currently recruiting volunteers for a program which will see us bring BRS members up to Aisling Projects centre in Shangan to do an experiment with the children on the power of detection and the spread of infection. This experiment will involve small lectures and the volunteers working with small groups showing how easy infection spreads and how we detect it. Following this, a small number of children who showed interest in the experiment and science, will be invited down to DCU for another workshop and to be shown around the research labs that BRS members use daily. These children will get to experience a small snippet of the day in the life of a scientist. The BRS will also have some members present who grew up in the area or similar areas to show the children how far they've come and how they did it.
The BRS are very excited about this collaboration and are keen to get as many members involved as possible. If you are interested please contact us at brs@dcu.ie asap and we will be in touch shortly.