Irish Chemical News 2021 Issue 2
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1 Irish Chemical News A Journal of the Institute of Chemistry of Ireland The Next big Challenge for Humanity – Carbon. Getting Alternatives - Hydrogen, Solar Energy, Wind Power, Li Batteries, Storing Electricity, Fuel Cells, Carbon Capture, Fusion Power, Bio-Fuels irishtimes.com Lim et al., Joule 4 1-10 (2020). urce: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign IRISH CHEMICAL NEWS ISSUE NO.2 MAY 2021 2 Ravensdale Road, Dublin D03 CY66. Web: www.instituteofchemistry.org Contents: Page A message from the President 6 Editorial 8 Chemistry in Europe 16 Institute of Chemistry of Ireland Annual Award Ceremony 2021 17 The Institute of Chemistry of Ireland’s Young Chemists’ Network 19 Message to President Michael D. Higgins on the Occasion of His 80th Birthday 22 Professor Dervilla M.X. Donnelly, ICI Honorary Fellowship 23 The Institute Honours Dr Raymond Leonard as he retires from Council 24 The International Mass Spectrometry School (IMSSc), Belfast, August 2021 26 Dr Mike Ryan awarded inaugural Cameron Award by RCSI Virtual Event 28 ICI Nominee appointed to Environmental Protection Agency advisory committee 29 The European Chemical Workshop Society “The Carbon Element” 30 EUROVARIETY 2021 on-line Conference 36 From Soap to Ice-cream: the Irish Seaweed Industry 18th – 21st Century. Dr Peter Childs 37 IBICS & ICI Lecture COVID – A Year Like No Other, Where Next? 64 ChemPubSoc Europe becomes Chemistry Europe 65 Irish University & 3rd Level Chemistry News & New TU Announcements 68 Chemistry and related Science around the World 80 Science Foundation Ireland Reports 114 SARS CoV-2 Virus Updates and Developments 135 Addenda 1-7 183 Industrial Development Authority IDA Reports 225 Enterprise Ireland 235 Silicon Republic 249 National Manufacturing & Supply Chain Conference & Exhibition 260 Manufacturing and Supply Chain Awards, 2020 263 New email for the Editor: [email protected] Note: Opinions expressed in this Journal are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Institute. IRISH CHEMICAL NEWS ISSUE NO.2 MAY 2021 3 Sponsors:- IRISH CHEMICAL NEWS ISSUE NO.2 MAY 2021 4 IRISH CHEMICAL NEWS ISSUE NO.2 MAY 2021 5 IRISH CHEMICAL NEWS ISSUE NO.2 MAY 2021 6 A Message from the President Dear Fellows, Members, Graduates and Associates, I sincerely hope that you and your families are all keeping safe and well. Isn’t it so heartening to see the daily increases in numbers of people being vaccinated? As the vaccination programme continues to be rolled out, we can all begin to genuinely look forward with hope and anticipation as more of us and our loved ones benefit from the protection the vaccine provides. Our editor, Dr Patrick Hobbs, is to be congratulated once again for putting together yet another excellent issue of the Irish Chemical News. He has provided a comprehensive editorial so I shall focus my message predominantly on our recent ICI award ceremony. First, as you know, we hosted a virtual ICI Award Ceremony on Thursday, 29th April, 2021. We are grateful to all those who presented and also to all those who attended. A special congratulations to Professor AP De Silva from QUB, recipient of the ICI Boyle Higgins Gold Medal and Lecture Award 2020, who delivered an inspirational award lecture on ‘Fluorescent Sensing and Logic Systems’. Professor De Silva has kindly agreed for us to share a recording of this lecture, which will be published shortly on the ICI website. Congratulations also to Dr Conor Crawford, one of the ICI Postgraduate awardees in 2020. Conor delivered an insightful presentation into his quest for a cryptococcal vaccine. Unfortunately, the other ICI Postgraduate awardee in 2020, Dr Priyanka Ganguly, was unable to present her award lecture due to circumstances beyond her control but we were delighted that one of her supervisors, Professor Suresh Pillai, stepped in at short notice. Professor Pillar provided a wonderful insight into Priyanka’s research and outreach contributions. We wish Conor and Priyanka continued success. The call is now open to submit nominations for both the ICI Boyle Higgins Gold Medal and Lecture award 2021 and the ICI Postgraduate Award 2021 with a deadline date of Friday, 18th June, 2021. I would encourage you please to submit nominations. This is an excellent opportunity to acknowledge our colleagues and postgraduate scholars who are achieving excellence in their respective fields. During the award ceremony, we also announced the recipient of the ICI David Brown Award – Professor Nicholas Farrell, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA. Our warmest congratulations to Professor Farrell who has significantly contributed to the field of bioinorganic chemistry. Professor Farrell delivered an outstanding award lecture entitled ‘Inorganic Drugs - Away from DNA and Back?’ during the Inorganic Ireland Symposium, which was hosted recently by Dr Constantina Papatriantafyllopoulou and local organizing committee, NUIG. Professor Farrell, a UCD graduate, brought the first non-classical platinum anti-cancer drug to late stage clinical trials some years ago. It is heartening to see that he is still pushing the boundaries in this important field. The ICI Young Chemists’ Network (YCN) is continuing to work hard to support our young chemists as outlined by Dr Mark Kelada during the award ceremony. For those interested in learning more about the ICI YCN, please check the website for updates https://www.chemistryireland.org/young-chemists- network and also follow them on Twitter: @ICIYCN and on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ICIYoungChemists/about IRISH CHEMICAL NEWS ISSUE NO.2 MAY 2021 7 I was particularly pleased, during the award ceremony, to acknowledge Dr Raymond Leonard’s enormous contribution to the ICI which spans over half a century. We wish Dr Leonard continued good health and happiness as he retires from Council. Dr Eoghan McGarrigle, Council member and assistant honorary treasurer, is also stepping down from Council, having served on Council for a number of years. We sincerely thank Dr McGarrigle for sharing his expertise on Council and we likewise wish him continued happiness and success. I am delighted to say that Professor Michael Lyons, Head of the School of Chemistry, TCD, will be joining us on Council following his election onto Council during the ICI AGM, which was held immediately following the award ceremony. We are very much looking forward to working with Professor Lyons and availing of his expertise and experience. A special word of congratulations to Professor Dervilla Donnelly, Emeritus Professor of Phytochemistry, UCD, who was awarded an honorary ICI Fellowship during our AGM which she so richly deserves. Professor Donnelly has not only had a highly distinguished career in academia but has also contributed significantly to the wider community serving in a variety of leadership roles. I am also pleased to acknowledge Prof John Wenger, Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Centre for Research into Atmospheric Chemistry, UCC, who has recently been appointed to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Advisory Committee. It is wonderful that Chemistry is being represented and I have no doubt that Professor Wenger will play an instrumental role in shaping policies and practices in this important field. Since the last ICN issue, and following an external, independent review of nominations submitted for the ICI Annual Award for Chemistry (Eva Philbin Public Lecture Series) 2020, I am delighted to note that Professor Declan Gilheany is the 2020 award recipient. We are very much looking forward to Professor Gilheany’s public lectures which he plans to deliver in the near future, most likely virtually. These will be publicized in advance on the ICI website and via email to all ICI members. Finally, may I pay a special words of thanks to Dr Peter Childs for providing a fascinating paper which is published in this issue on the Irish Seaweed Industry 18th – 21st Century. Dr Childs was awarded an ICI honorary fellowship in 2020. Please do not hesitate to get in contact if you would like the Institute to showcase any updates that you may have both in the ICN and under the ‘Latest News’ section on our website https://www.chemistryireland.org/latest-news On behalf of Council, may I wish you all continued good health and happiness. Professor Celine J. Marmion PhD FRSC FICI President, Institute of Chemistry of Ireland 21st May, 2021 IRISH CHEMICAL NEWS ISSUE NO.2 MAY 2021 8 Editorial As we enter May and summer approaches we have 4 approved Covid-19 vaccines being widely administered and hospital admittance and deaths have decreased dramatically. There are some concerns as daily new infections have plateaued which is likely linked to social behaviour. The success of the vaccines being available in a year is a great testament to the scientists and medics who cooperated across all disciplines on an international level to give us this success. There are some concerns with the viral vector vaccines and very rare blood clots which seem to affect women more than men and we don’t yet understand why. There are also concerns with supplies. Manufacturing new vaccines on short timelines is a major challenge, in some cases with shortages of raw materials such a nucleic acids which are mainly manufactured in the US who still ban exports. AstraZeneca/Oxford in particular have problems supplying the expected quantities. They are new to vaccines manufacture and have mainly been a cancer drug company. The manufacturing process is biological and variability is to be expected. Knowhow and experience is vital especially when manufacturing at multiple locations and coordinating all this activity at the contract manufacturing organisations. They have set the goal of supplying at cost which is admirable. In my opinion the EU suing in European courts is not helpful and could discourage future risky efforts by pharmaceutical companies. There is a lot of talk in the news feeds about suspending Intellectual Property rights and Patents on the vaccines.