The 'ESAI Postgraduate Researcher of the Year Award' for ESAI members started in 2013 and welcomes applications from students doing either a PhD or a Masters degree by research in an environmental topic.
The ESAI are delighted to announce that the winner of our Postgraduate Researcher of the Year Award is Irene O’Callaghan from University College Cork (UCC). Irene's research has focused on the development of a novel technique to improve the detection and quantification of emerging contaminants within the freshwater environment. Her supervisor is Dr. Timothy Sullivan, UCC. Congrats to all the team involved.
This year the ESAI has decided to acknowledge the extremely high standard of competition by acknowledging one further entry who was of exceptional standard but just missed out on the overall prize. Highly commended Katherine Burns, UCD for her projectworking on contributions and conservation of Irish Pollinators in Ireland. Her supervisor is Dr Dara Stanley, UCD.
Irene will receive the prize of €500 and her certificate will be presented at the opening ceremony of Environ 2022. She will also be invited to give a guest lecture at the subsequent ESAI AGM which takes place at the ENVIRON 2022 at 5.30pm on 21st of June.
Applications were evaluated under three criteria: Scientific excellence and originality, Impact (economic/environmental/societal) and Dissemination (conferences, outreach, media). Candidates were asked to outline research objectives, background to research, why research is necessary and novel, environmental relevance, methods, results, accomplishments, awards, publications/patents, the potential impact of the research (economic/environmental/societal), and outline the dissemination activities related to the project.
Postgraduate Researcher of the Year 2022 will be launched at Environ 2022 on June 21st 2022. Application forms will be available here from that date onwards.
2020 Winner: Sean O’Connor, Institute of Technology Sligo
PhD thesis entitled “Meeting Ireland's Sustainability Challenges and Obligations - The role of small-scale waste/energy management as sustainable solutions in the
circular economy.”
2020 Highly Commended: Kate Mahony, University College Cork
PhD thesis entitled “A temporal investigation of Europe-wide drivers of cockle Cerastoderma edule biology, health and population dynamics.”
2020 Highly Commended: Samuel Ross, Trinity College Dublin
PhD thesis entitled “Understanding the consequences of global environmental change for ecological dynamics and resilience.”
2019: Molly-Ann Williams, Dublin City University
PhD thesis entitled “Development of a Novel Biosensor for the Detection of Specific Species using Enviornmental DNA”
2018: Conall Holohan, National University of Ireland, Galway
PhD thesis entitled “The Anaerobic Digestion of Fats: exploring microbial technological solutions”
2017: Philip Shine, Cork Institute of Technology
PhD thesis entitled “Electricity and direct water consumption on Irish dairy farms”
2016: Christopher Finnegan, Institute of Technology Carlow
PhD thesis entitled “Detection and bioremediation of tributyltin in several environmental matrices such as sediments, soils, water and biological samples”
2015: Luke J. Prendergast, University College Dublin
PhD thesis entitled “Monitoring of scour around structures using changes in natural frequency of vibration”
2014: Richard Manton, NUI Galway
PhD thesis entitled “Route Selection and Design of Greenways: Guidance for the Irish National Cycle Network”
