Tyndall winners at UCC Staff Research Awards 2020

It gives us great pleasure to announce that two Tyndall researchers received UCC Staff Research Awards. The winners were revealed at a live streamed award ceremony hosted by Interim President Professor John O’Halloran on Thursday, 8 October 2020.

The awards recognise a range of talents and expertise across UCC. This year’s winners demonstrate the exceptionally high calibre staff within Tyndall and the high regard in which they are held by their colleagues who nominated them for an award. 

The UCC Research Awards programme, recognises those researchers who have made exceptional and very influential research contributions, pushing boundaries, enhancing knowledge and raising the national and international profile of University College Cork.

Research Support Person of the Year Award

Eileen Hurley

Eileen joined Tyndall in 2001 initially as a Research Assistant with the Bioanalytical Microsystems Group and in 2004 joined the Life Science Interface, (LSI), Group as Laboratory Manager.

In this role, Eileen oversaw the design and commissioning of the LSI suite of laboratories, and has managed that suite of six laboratories for the benefit of Tyndall's LSI researchers as well as researchers from across several groups and centres in Tyndall. The research activities within the LSI labs include research involving chemistry, biology, electronics, materials and multidisciplinary combinations of all scientific disciplines. The very nature of the research activity, ranging from high-voltage test equipment, to cell cultures and ex vivo tissue samples, to a diverse range of chemicals, presents a diverse and challenging combination of facilities and personnel to manage.

Eileen plays a key role in promoting EPE for STEM, by hosting and organizing numerous visits of transition year and visiting students, liaising with the researchers to ensure that the visitors experience the nature of the diverse science and engineering activities underway not just in the LSI Group, but across Tyndall as a whole.

The importance of Eileen’s role in Tyndall has been amplified with the ongoing transition to return to work, where Eileen has worked diligently with Tyndall and UCC safety committees, to ensure that all risk assessments were updated, and all safety considerations comprehensively addressed not only at LSI Group level but operating as the “go to” person for all staff and students returning to lab-based work from the ~300 person MNS Centre. Eileen’s leadership has been leveraged by her inclusion as a member of the UCC Campus Business Continuity Group (CBCG) during COVID pandemic, and she is also acting as UCC Lead Worker Representative during COVID pandemic.

During the recent lock-down period, Eileen initiated several measures to maintain social connections and ensure the wellbeing of all staff and students in the LSI Group (i.e. ~30 researchers), and selflessly took upon herself in her own personal time to make individual contact with researchers who were struggling with the isolation due to the restrictions as applicable.

Eileen performs these tasks in an exemplary manner, ensuring that safety and regulatory aspects are given top priority, while always being available to support staff, students and research projects.  Her general “can do” attitude, hard work and dedication has contributed significantly to timely and successful delivery of many successful H2020, SFI, Enterprise Ireland and industry funded research projects. She is an outstanding representative of Tyndall and UCC to our staff, students and visitors.

Research Supervisor of the Year Award

Dr Paul Hurley

Since 1995, Dr Hurley has been involved with postgraduate supervision and is extremely passionate about teaching. His teaching ethos is that research should be an exciting and enjoyable experience where he aims to create an open and friendly atmosphere in the group. He does not see the group as a hierarchy of: professor, research staff and students.

On countless occasions he has demonstrated himself as a fantastic role model for research groups within Tyndall. Typically described by his students as being supportive, enthusiastic, helpful and kind he also has an incredible gift at making people feel welcome, included and heard. An inspiring person that “challenges our research, motivates us to look further and to investigate more deeply”.

Emma Coleman, one of Dr Hurley’s PhD students provides the following testimonial to his character:

Paul has been my supervisor for the last 3 years. He has been a fantastic role model for everyone in our research group. Paul has an incredible gift at making people feel welcome and heard. No matter who you are, be it a student or PI, he will always give his time to listen and talk with you about anything you need. His door is (literally) always open. When I first started my PhD, I was coming from a different area in chemistry and felt nervous stepping into a new field. Having Paul as my supervisor however, made that transition from undergrad to PhD student so much easier. Before I began my PhD, I had very little experience with speaking and presenting in front of crowds. With Paul's support and encouragement, I have now presented in several international conferences - ECS, IEEE and MRS. Thanks to Paul's motivation and guidance, I believe I have become a confident public speaker and his valuable advice has made me feel more prepared for a career beyond the PhD. He challenges our research, motivates us to look further and to investigate more deeply. His intelligent instincts have led to many successful studies and rewarding results.

Fellow PhD students and I have discussed on countless occasions how lucky we are to have such an enthusiastic, helpful and genuinely kind supervisor. Paul's ability to create such a positive atmosphere in the group has made work so enjoyable and rewarding. 

Jun Lin, one of Dr Hurley’s former PhD students shares another glowing testimonial

Paul was my PhD supervisor (2011-2016). In the first year, Paul helped me structure my PhD project, therefore I knew what I needed to do to achieve my PhD, almost from day one. Throughout my PhD, Paul also gave me the flexibility to perform research while meeting me regularly for discussions. As a novice and non-native English speaker, I had problems in understanding technical discussions in meetings. Paul suggested the most useful readings to overcome the barrier and despite his busy schedule, spent a lot of time explaining and discussing the problems. Under Paul's professional guidance, I started from not even knowing how to write an abstract to publishing papers in high quality peer reviewed journals. In addition, Paul encouraged me to attend a lot of conferences and helped me to hone my presentation skills to a professional standard. Moreover, Paul connected me with people in the same field through his broad network, and also arranged a 2-week placement for me at IMEC in Belgium, which were both a huge help for my future career. Before I finished my PhD, Paul gave me a lot of his personal advice for my career (academia and industry). On the completion of my PhD, Paul helped me massively to develop my research career by involving me in projects that enabled me to interact directly with multinational companies such as Intel and Applied Materials. Paul's character and personality have also had a very positive impact on the group, fostering an atmosphere of friendliness and cooperation, making teamwork truly work.