Posted 15 July 2015
Fulbright Awards for UCD scholars
Six UCD scholars have been awarded Fulbright Awards to undertake research and teaching at leading US universities and institutions.
Funded by the Irish and US governments under the Ireland-United States Commission for Educational Exchange, the Fulbright Awards offer Irish and US students, scholars and professionals the opportunity to study, lecture, and research at leading universities and institutions in the US and Ireland respectively. They were first established in 1957.
The six UCD recipients of the Fulbright awards for 2015 are:
Ms Mary Carey is a part-time Walsh Fellow with Teagasc and a PhD candidate in the UCD Geary Institute for Public Policy. Mary is also an economist with the Department of Finance’s Economic and Evaluation Service. Mary will research the impact of agri-businesses on the rural economy at the University of Missouri.
UCD Fulbright recipients pictured at the awards ceremony in Iveagh House, Dublin, recently, l-r: Mr Jonathan Ruane, Ms Mary Carey, Dr Denise McGrath and Mr John Woods
Dr Denise McGrath is a lecturer at the UCD School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Population Science. As a Fulbright TechImpact Scholar, Denise will travel to the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, to explore innovative wearable technology solutions that will enable people with Parkinson’s to overcome the debilitating unpredictability of the disease.
Dr Deirdre Raftery is a historian and Senior Lecturer at the UCD School of Education, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. As a Fulbright Scholar, she will be based at Boston College, working on her tenth book publication, a monograph which examines the contribution of Irish-born nuns to American education, in the period 1840-1940.
Mr Jonathan Ruane is a technology entrepreneur and an Adjunct Lecturer in New Venture Creation and Development at the UCD Quinn School of Business. As the Fulbright-CRH student awardee, Jonathan will undertake a Sloan Fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, focusing on innovation and global leadership.
Mr John Woods is an MA candidate in Modern Irish at the UCD School of Irish, Celtic Studies, Irish Folklore and Linguistics. He will be a Foreign Language Teaching Assistant at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana.
Ms Síle Dolan graduated from NUI Galway in 2014 with a degree in Irish and French. She completed a master’s in Scríobh agus Cumarsáid na Gaeilge (writing and communication of Irish) in the UCD School of Irish, Celtic Studies, Irish Folklore and Linguistics in 2014-15, where she has also been working as a tutor. She will be a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant at Elms College, Chicopee, Massachusetts.
Minister for Diaspora Affairs Jimmy Deenihan T.D. and the US Ambassador to Ireland, Kevin O’Malley, officially announced 31 new Irish Fulbright Awardees at an event in Iveagh House recently.
Minister Deenihan said: “This year’s awards reflect the rapid global developments in digital technology. Through the Fulbright TechImpact Awards and the Fulbright-University of Notre Dame TechImpact Scholar Awards, six awardees will explore digital advancement in areas including wearable sensing technologies, app development and language-learning resources.”
The Chair of the Ireland-United States (Fulbright) Commission for Educational Exchange, Professor John Hegarty said: “We are very thankful to the state agencies that sponsor Fulbright Awards, including CRH plc, Enterprise Ireland, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Marine Institute and Teagasc.
“We were delighted to welcome SEAI as a new sponsor this year. We would also like to acknowledge the ongoing support of Irish and US higher colleges, the Irish Department or Foreign Affairs and Trade, the US Department of State; and the Department of Arts, Heritage, and the Gaeltacht and the National Lottery, who support the Irish Language Awards.”
The next round of applications for Irish Fulbright Awardees will open on Monday, August 31, 2015. Interested applicants in all disciplines are encouraged to visit the Fulbright Commission’s website, www.fulbright.ie, for more information. All applications for the 2016-2017 academic year will be due on Friday, October 30, 2015.(Produced by UCD University Relations)
