Prizes & Awards

This award is given in the memory of Dr Paraic James. Paraic was a committed teacher, researcher, and promoter of chemistry in the School of Chemical Sciences. In 1986, Paraic was appointed Lecturer in Chemistry at NIHE Dublin (now DCU), being promoted to Senior Lecturer in the year 2000. He served as Head of the School of Chemical Sciences for a number of years during which his great management and organisational skills became evident. He maintained strong interests in heterocyclic chemistry and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy, and supervised 16 graduate students to PhD and MSc degrees. This work led to many publications in international peer reviewed academic journals. Paraic made major contributions to the development of numerous BSc programme in the school. He lectured across all years of the undergraduate and post-graduate degree programmes, and his approach to teaching was characterised by a deep concern for the welfare of his students. He was always careful to identify those students who were struggling with the course content and to ensure they received the extra supports necessary for them to succeed. Paraic sadly passed away in 2005 and is missed by colleagues who knew him.

This award is given in the memory of Dr Colin J. Barnes. Colin was a wonderfully enthusiastic and dedicated member of the School of Chemical Sciences at Dublin City University since August 1992 until his tragic death in a fishing accident in early May 2002. Colin was all that one could ever hope for in a colleague, a researcher, a mentor and a teacher. Colin received his BSc and PhD from Liverpool University, after which he held several postdoctoral positions included a prestigious research fellowship from Neste Petrochemical Foundation (Finland) to head a team carrying out a research program on bimetallic catalysts based within the Department of Physics at Tampere University of Technology in Finland (1996-1990). Subsequently Colin moved back to the UK to take up a BP Senior Research Fellowship within the Department of Chemistry at Cambridge University (1990-1992) working on single crystal catalysts. He published over 70 papers in refereed high quality journals and educated 7 PhD and more than 15 MSc students. Colin had a particular way of doing science that one might liken to total immersion- he enjoyed long hours in the laboratory working on the ultra-high-vacuum facilities for quantitative surface crystallographic determinations that he and his co-workers had built together. Such was his love of what he did, that colleagues have remarked that he never considered it work. He is sadly missed by colleagues who knew him.