COIRIBE COIS Rio The Magazine for GOLD NUI Galway Galway 2020 MedTech in Galway A Changing Campus Alumni & Friends Autumn 2016 NUI Galway Affinity Card. You get, we give. You get a unique credit card and we give back to NUI Galway when you register and each year your Affinity card is active. Our introductory offer gives you a competitive rate of 2.9%¹ APR interest on balance transfers for first 12 months. bankofireland.com/alumni 1890 365 100 Lending criteria terms and conditions apply to all credit cards. Credit cards are liable to Government Stamp Duty of €30. Credit cannot be offered to anyone under 18 years of age. Bank of Ireland is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. ¹Available if you don’t currently hold a credit card with Bank of Ireland, whether you have an account with us or not. At the end of the introductory period the annual interest rates revert back to 2 COIS COIRIBEthe standard rate applicable to your card at that time. OMI008172 - NUIG Affinity A4_Portrait Ad_v13.indd 1 03/08/2016 12:35 NUI Galway CONTENTS 2 FOCAL ÓN UACHTARÁN NEWS Affinity Card. 4 The Year in Pictures 6 Research Round-up 10 University News You get, we give. 14 Campus News 26 Student Success FEATURES 16 A New Direction for Sport 22 1916 – Centenary Year 4 24 NASA Mission 28 A Changing Campus - Capital Development 32 Giving Stem Cells a heartbeat 34 MedTech in Galway 24 41 TG4 @ 20 42 Galway 2020 GRADUATES 36 Aoibheann McNamara 37 Paul O’Hara 38 Grads in Silicon Valley 44 Graduations GALWAY UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION 46 Empowering Excellence ALUMNI 6 18 50 Alumni Awards 38 52 Alumni Events 56 Class Notes 64 Obituaries CONTRIBUTORS Jo Lavelle, John Fallon, Ronan McGreevy, Joyce McCreevy, Joe Connolly, Dónall Ó Braonáin, Conor McNamara, Liz McConnell, Ruth Hynes, Sheila Gorham. Editor: Michelle Ní Chróinín 22 [email protected] Editorial Board: Liz McConnell, Tom Joyce, Michelle Ní Chróinín You get a unique credit card and we give Photography: Aengus McMahon, Sportsfile, back to NUI Galway when you register and Inpho, NUI Galway Archive, Martin Kiely, 32 Andrew Downes each year your Affinity card is active. Design: Allen Creative Our introductory offer gives you a www.allencreative.ie ¹ competitive rate of 2.9% APR interest on Print: iSupply 28 balance transfers for first 12 months. Proofreading: Proofread.ie This publication is available online at: bankofireland.com/alumni www.nuigalway.ie/alumni Disclaimer: Cois Coiribe is an annual magazine published by the Marketing & Communications Office for alumni and friends of NUI 1890 365 100 Galway. While every care is taken in compiling the magazine, NUI Galway accepts no responsibility for the effects arising thereof. The views expressed are not necessarily those of NUI Galway. All material is copyright. Lending criteria terms and conditions apply to all credit cards. Credit cards are liable to Government Stamp Duty of €30. Credit cannot be offered to anyone under 18 years of age. Bank of Ireland ON THE COVER: NUI Galway Engineering lecturer is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. Dr. Eoghan Clifford wins gold at Rio Paralympics ¹Available if you don’t currently hold a credit card with Bank of Ireland, whether you have an account with us or not. At the end of the introductory period the annual interest rates revert back to 2016 16 37 the standard rate applicable to your card at that time. OMI008172 - NUIG Affinity A4_Portrait Ad_v13.indd 1 03/08/2016 12:35 FOCAL ÓN UACHTARÁN There’s a vibrancy about Galway these days. The phenomenal success of the Wild Atlantic Way coupled with winning the bid to become the European Capital of Culture in 2020 mean that the city has a spring in its step. The bounce is tangible here in NUI Galway. President Jim Browne reflects on the region and the University with Gráinne Faller. “The opportunity all of it provides for the city and the university of €100 million over seven years and we’re way ahead of that. That is incredible,” he says. “When you think about what has happened target was seen to be quite ambitious at the time but I think we’ll with the Wild Atlantic Way, then you ally that with the European achieve it. The first couple of years suggest that we’ll overachieve on Capital of Culture and then you bring the University into that, it’s it .” very special.” As the capital spending draws to a close, the University’s funding While all universities are important to their regions, few have focus is now shifting. the kind of symbiosis that NUI Galway has achieved with its hinterland, but that is only part of the story. The University has “Nothing is ever complete in the capital sense but a major also had considerable success internationally. Its researchers milestone has been reached,” Browne says. “We’re transitioning have been immensely successful at winning European research our priorities away from capital and towards support for students, funding, both from the European Research Council and the research and recurrent activity.” €80bn Horizon 2020 research and innovation fund. In fact, NUI Galway won more Horizon 2020 funding than any other Irish One of the features of this shift in focus is a concerted effort to university last year and continues to punch well above its weight enable some of the most talented academic researchers to forge when it comes to winning international funding. careers within the University. Galway University Foundation, charged with raising private support, has established the “I like the fact that the success is spread across the campus,” says Foundation Research Leadership Programme, which will fund 15 Browne. “It’s not all med-tech or ICT. There are people involved new lecturer posts over the next three years. in humanities, social science, engineering, science: it is dispersed throughout the institution. The investment we have made in the Browne says: “Ireland produces about 1,300 PhDs per year as a buildings and the staff is now coming through in the form of this sector and where do they go? The majority have to go into the kind of success.” so-called real world, industry and business. However, we also need some to stay in the universities, and right now because of That investment that Browne refers to, the Capital Investment controls on numbers due to the financial situation, we can’t do it. Programme, is nearing completion. It began in 2006 and cost So this Foundation Leadership scheme is creating opportunities close to €400 million. The research funding wins are proof that for the very best young people to come back into the University. the spend is already reaping rewards. That’s really important in terms of replenishing the staff in the institutions.” “All that infrastructure creates the kind of resources needed for us to become a good partner for European institutions to make The University is evolving and progressing, and Browne cites the successful bids for Horizon 2020,” says Browne. “We have a target appointment back in February of Professor Anne Scott as Vice 2 COIS COIRIBE President for Equality and Diversity as an important and hugely Browne’s vision is to make the Quad into a Visitor Centre: positive step for the University. However, he admits that gender something that becomes that living heart, not just of the and diversity equality is an issue that has rightly overshadowed University, but of the region. Parts of the Quad are soon to be much of what has gone on in all Irish universities in the past few vacated as disciplines move to the newly completed buildings years. A highly publicised court case and a damning report on and the Buildings Office is actively exploring the possibility. gender equality in all Irish universities by the Higher Education Authority, highlighted issues that Browne admits had been “It all speaks to an agenda of the University and the city and the overlooked. region all working together to make it a really attractive place. We’re going to work on getting that idea articulated properly “While we dealt with the promotions issue before the courts over the coming months and bring it to the Governing Body.” found against us,” he says “My big regret is that we didn’t deal with the wider issue. We didn’t recognise that the outcome from That relationship between University, city and region, to which the 2009 promotion round was indicative of a wider problem Browne refers, is multifaceted and perhaps one of the most across the University.” exciting aspects of that relationship is the continuing growth and development of the medical technology sector. The Gender Equality Task Force, led by Professor Jane Grimson, which published its report in May, did a “stupendous job,” Browne says: “It’s arguably the best story of economic according to Browne. “Every single one of the final set of development in the whole country. Medtech in the west of recommendations will be implemented,” he says. Ireland is not simply a sector, it is an eco-system.” Browne acknowledges that many inside and outside the He does not claim sole credit for the University. “Success has University are sceptical, particularly as court cases are ongoing. many fathers,” he says. “The university played a role, initially He can’t comment publicly on those for legal reasons, but he says: in training. In the 1990s we created a biomedical engineering “The scepticism is there. I understand it, but time will tell. I degree, a biosciences degree. Then we went after money for would be confident that we are now doing the right thing… I the biosciences to build the biomedical buildings.