Posted 28 June 2010
10 of 23 Fulbright Awards for UCD graduates and staff
In recognition of their academic merit and their leadership potential, ten UCD scholars (staff and students) have been awarded prestigious Irish 2010-2011 Fulbright Awards to research, teach or study at leading US universities.
“To have received such a high number of 2010-2011 Fulbright Awards – ten out of twenty-three – is a great reflection on the depth and relevance of UCD scholarship. These young scholars are at an early stage in their careers and are part of the new generation of research-active, teaching academics,” said Dr Brady, President of UCD, congratulating the UCD recipients.
“From teaching Irish at Haskell Indian Nations University in Kansas, to researching historical and policy determinants of Irish health and well-being at Princeton University, to studying mechanical engineering at MIT, our academics and students are making a valuable contribution to knowledge exchange between Ireland and the US.”
The awards are part of the Fulbright Programme established in 1946 under legislation sponsored by US Senator J William Fulbright to build an alternative to armed conflict by providing a structured network for dialogue and cultural exchange.
In Ireland, the Fulbright Programme is administered by the Fulbright Commission in Ireland. The Commission is supported by the US Department of State and the Department of Foreign Affairs to operate this educational exchange program between Ireland and the United States. The Commission derives its income from the Irish and US Governments, higher education institutions, public agencies and organisations and donations from the corporate sector.
“The mission of the Fulbright Commission in Ireland is to build on the deep historic, cultural and economic ties between Ireland and the United States and to create mutually beneficial and sustainable educational exchange programmes which are responsive to national and global challenges and opportunities,” explained Colleen Dube, Executive Director of the Fulbright Commission in Ireland.
UCD Fulbright awardees pictured with front row (l-r): Minister Dick Roche, Minister for European Affairs; Dan Rooney (US Ambassador to Ireland) and Patricia Rooney; Una Halligan, Government and Public Affairs Director, Hewlett Packard Ireland; and Colleen Dube, Executive Director, the Fulbright Commission in Ireland
The 10 UCD 2010-2011 Fulbright Award recipients are:
- Paul Alexander has been awarded the Fulbright – Environmental Protection Agency Award in Environmental Science & Policy. Paul is undertaking a research masters at the UCD School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Policy, in the area of climatology, urban climates and climate change. While on his Fulbright scholarship he will conduct research in the area of urban climatology at the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University.
- Michael Casey has been awarded a Fulbright Award for Foreign Language Teaching Assistant at Haskell Indian Nations University in Kansas. Michael has just completed his MA in Modern Irish at the UCD School of Irish, Celtic Studies, Irish Folklore & Linguistics.
- David Comerford has been awarded a Fulbright Award to undertake research as part of his PhD in the area of consumer judgment and decision making at Duke University, North Carolina. David is a third year Doctoral student of economics at the UCD School of Economics.
- Dr Katherine Curran from the UCD School of Chemistry and Chemical Biology has been awarded a Fulbright Award to undertake research at the University of Illinois in the area of design rules for dynamic macrocyclisation and the potential applications.
- Dr Liam Delaney, a lecturer in the UCD School of Economics and Deputy Director of the UCD Geary Institute has been awarded a Fulbright Award to undertake research at Princeton University in the area of historical and policy determinants of Irish health and well being.
- Ian Hastings, UCD School of Law, who has just graduated from University College Dublin, has been awarded a Fulbright Award to attend the University of Chicago’s LLM where he will focus on constitutional and tort law.
- Ronan McGovern has been awarded the Fulbright International Science & Technology Award. Initiated in 2006, this is one of the most prestigious international scholarships in science and technology. Grantees are awarded full-tuition (valued at approximately $60,000 per annum), a monthly stipend for up to 36 months, health and accident coverage, a book and equipment allowance, professional conference allowance, travel support, and specially tailored enrichment activities, and are eligible to apply for additional research funding. After three years, US universities have agreed to fund the remaining expenses toward completion of a PhD. With the Fulbright International Science & Technology Award, Ronan, who scored 900 points in the Leaving Certificate (9 A1s) and chose to study omnibus Engineering at University College Dublin, will enroll on a fully funded PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
- Sinead Murnane is the Fulbright – CRH Awardee in Business Studies. A PhD candidate in business at the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, Sinead will conduct research into management information and knowledge management systems at the Intermountain Institute for Health Care Delivery Research in Salt Lake City, Utah.
- Siobhán Ní Mhaolagáin has a Masters in Irish and Communications (MA Scríobh & Cumarsáid na Gaelige) from UCD and has been teaching Irish at the UCD School of Irish, Celtic Studies, Irish Folklore & Linguistics since 2008. Siobhán will now teach Irish as a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant in Lehman College, City University of New York in the Bronx.
- Dr Emilie Pine is a lecturer in modern drama in the UCD School of English, Drama and Film. As this year’s Fulbright Irish Studies Scholar at the University of California – Berkeley, Dr Pine will teach a graduate seminar on Irish culture and conduct research towards a cultural history of Ireland in the 1930s.
(Produced by UCD University Relations)
