NUI Galway Biomedical Engineer Wins ‘Researcher of the Year’ at IRC Awards Professor Laoise McNamara, Professor in Biomedical Engineering at NUI Galway, ( pictured below ), was awarded ‘Researcher of the Year’ for her research in bone mechanobiology and osteoporosis, at the Irish Research Council 2019 Researcher of the Year Awards. Professor McNamara’s research is at the interface of engineering and biology and informs medical device design. Her work seeks to understand how the mechanobiology process is changed in osteoporosis, a disease which affects bone mass, and in cancer metastasis to bone.
Seven new NUI Galway projects to respond to COVID-19 crisis During the global coronavirus pandemic, our researchers were working not only to address the health challenges created by the pandemic, but also to improve our understanding of the economic and social implications caused by the fallout from COVID-19. As such, seven new NUI Galway projects were awarded funding: equipment to make it easier and safer for patients with COVID-19 to breathe; expediting the diagnosis of COVID-19 in a clinical setting using AI-enabled analysis of CT scans; improving long-term patient recovery and reducing disability after COVID-19 critical illness using microRNA-based approaches; identifying mental health needs and best practice for psychological support in frontline healthcare workers during and after the COVID-19 outbreak and in future pandemics; modelling real-time population-wide impacts of COVID-19; optimising COVID-19 social distancing communications—identifying and addressing psychosocial determinants of social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic; rapid response and learning for later—establishing high quality information networks and evaluation frameworks for the National Ambulance Service response to COVID-19. NUI Galway President, Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh said: “As a region renowned for creativity and as a global medtech hub, our university has been to the fore in looking at innovations that can support the response to the COVID-19 crisis.” Read more at www.nuigalway.ie/our-research/covid19/ .
€175k awarded to NUI Galway for SFI public engagement and education programmes Five NUI Galway based programmes will engage more than 100,000 members of the Irish public with science in 2020. Inspiring minds, engaging and educating the public are to the fore of these science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) projects. Bright Club, Cell EXPLORERS, SpaceShip Earth, CÚRAM and ReelLIFE SCIENCE are programmes which encourage people from all communities, age groups and backgrounds to engage in STEM through fun and entertaining educational activities. Funding was awarded ( see awards ceremony pictured, left ) to create an Escape Room, launch four high-altitude balloons and involve people living in Direct Provision to become involved in STEM, among other exciting and innovating initiatives brought to the public by academic researchers, scientists and educational experts.
L–R: Lindsay Deely, Curious Young Minds, Professor Derek O’Keefe, Spaceship Earth, Dr Jessamyn Fairfield and Kate Murray, Bright Club, Dr Ruth Freeman, Director Science for Society, SFI, Janic Schulte, Cell EXPLORERS, Megan Depinna and Dr Enda O’Connell, Reel LIFE SCIENCE, Dr Muriel Grenon, Cell EXPLORERS Photo: Science Foundation Ireland.
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