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ESAI Postgraduate of the Year Award 2020 Announced

ESAI Postgraduate Research of the Year: Sean O’Connor

We are delighted to announce the winner of the ESAI postgraduate researcher of the year is Sean O’Connor from the Institute of Technology Sligo. Sean’s research is focused on developing small scale anaerobic digestion (SSAD) for the treatment of biomass and organic waste. His research aims to evaluate the state of the art in SSAD and develop innovative modular designs and decision support tools which will serve to guide researchers, policymakers and operators in developing a sustainable indigenous bioenergy industry in Ireland.  This research has been carried out under the EU INTERREG funded Renewable Engine project with collaboration from an industry partner (Organic Power).  Sean’s supervisor is Dr. John Bartlett. The judges were impressed with the combination of scientific excellence and societal impact of the research. Read more about Sean’s researcher here.

  
This year the ESAI has decided to acknowledge the extremely high standard of competition by acknowledging two entries who were of exceptional standard but just missed out on the overall prize. 
 

ESAI Postgraduate Research of the Year 2020 Highly Commended: Kate Mahony  

Kate Mahony is a researcher based in University College Cork. Her novel research is focused on working with an “ecosystem engineer”, the common cockle Cerastoderma edule. Kate developed a holistic approach to study past and present conditions of cockles, in order to inform future sustainable management of this important resource. Kate’s supervisors are Prof. Sarah Culloty and Dr Sharon Lynch. Read more about Kate’s research here.
  

ESAI Postgraduate Research of the Year 2020 Highly Commended: Samuel Ross  

Samuel Ross is a researcher based in Trinity College Dublin. His research is focused on developing novel methods to understand ecological resilience. By working with acoustic arrays, Samuel is researching how eco-acoustics can provide high resolution real time monitoring of ecosystems. Samuel’s supervisor is Dr. Ian Donohue. Read more about Samuel’s research here.

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