PResident's RePORt 2009/2010 - University College Cork

Foreword
UCC at a Glance
Academic Developments
Teaching and Learning
Research
College Reports:
Arts, Celtic
Studies and Social
Sciences
Business and Law
Medicine and Health
Science, Engineering and
Food Science
Events
Student Experience
Sports and Recreation
Buildings and Estates
Cork University Press
Finance
Governing Body
IRIS Appendix
18
Additional successes in European competition included the
achievements of researchers from the College of Arts, Celtic
Studies and Social Sciences who had significant success in
winning Marie Curie grants in the face of intense competition
from across the EU.
UCC researchers continued to publish in the world’s top research
journals. An international team of scientists and physicians
led by Professor Louise Kenny (Obstetrics and Gynaecology)
identified 14 new metabolites that can detect first-time pregnant
women’s risk for pre-eclampsia, a life-threatening condition.
These research findings were published in September 2010
in Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Publishing in Nature Genetics, Professor Mark Achtman
(Environmental Research Institute) and a multi-national team of
scientists used genome sequencing to reconstruct past plague
pandemics from the time of the Black Death to the most recent
pandemic in the late 1800s. Professors Colin Hill and Paul Ross,
with colleagues from the University of Alberta, identified a new
antibiotic that is effective against the hospital-acquired pathogen
Clostridium difficile. This major breakthrough in the fight against
an infection that causes severe diarrhoea and death was
published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences. Finally, the discovery, by UCC’s Dr Ron Pinhasi and
a team of international archaeologists, of a perfectly preserved
leather shoe, 1,000 years older than the Great Pyramid of Giza,
was the subject of a major publication in the leading journal
PLoS ONE and subsequent global media coverage.
The success and world-class reputation of UCC researchers
was reflected by their receipt of numerous prestigious awards
and appointments during 2009/2010, including:
• Professor Jean-Pierre Colinge (TNI) winner of Science
Foundation Ireland’s ‘Researcher of the Year 2010’ accolade.
Recently, Professor Colinge published his work on the world’s
first junctionless transistor in the prestigious international
journal Nature Nanotechnology.
• Professor Gerald O’Sullivan (Director, Cork Cancer Research
Centre) was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award at
the Irish Journal of Medical Science (IJMS) Doctor Awards.
• Professor John Gamble (Geology) had a special volume of the
Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research published in
his honour in February 2010.
• The Royal Irish Academy admitted three UCC researchers
as members in recognition of their academic achievements:
Professors Paul Ross, Eoin O’Reilly and Caroline Fennell.
• Four scientists from the APC were awarded the IDF Elie
Metchnikoff Prize in Microbiology for 2010. The Prize-winners
were Dr Catherine Stanton and Professor Paul Ross of
Teagasc, Moorepark and Professors Colin Hill and Gerald
Fitzgerald ( Microbiology).
In the increasingly competitive research business, both nationally
and internationally, UCC continues to deliver ideas and people
of the highest international calibre.