After over two years in the NCSR, Dr. Jackie Glynn, NCSR Centre Manager, has left to move to San Diego, California. During her tenure as centre manager, Jackie has been involved with a number of exciting initiatives and projects that are responsible for bringing the NCSR to the exciting future it is embarking on as it enters its tenth year. We take this opportunity to thank Jackie for her hard work and contribution to the NCSR and we wish her the very best in the future.

To view photographs of Jackie's farewell reception, please click here.

Award for EpiSensor Academic Partner, by Simpson Financial & Technology PR, 16th December 2008.

To read the full article please click here.

The Annual Invention Disclosure Award ceremony was held on 5th December 2008 in the Invent Centre. The Overall Award for Life Sciences of €1000 was given to Lourdes Basabe-Desmonts, Asif Riaz, Antonio Ricco and Luke Lee (BDI) for their invention disclosure entitled ‘Single Platelet Adhesion Assay’. This was a joint invention between DCU and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Overall NCSR based research received 24 of the 36 Invention Disclosures awarded in the categorie of Life Sciences; Physical/Chemical Scicences.

To read more about the awards or to view a full list of recopients please click here.

Dr. Robert Byrne, a post-doctoral fellow in Prof. Dermot Diamond’s Adaptive Sensors Group, has been awarded a Short Term Travel Fellowship (STTF) from Science Foundation Ireland (SFI).

To read more about this scholarship please click here.

The UNCSR would like to invite you to attend its first charity quiz in aid of DCU's St. Vincent de Paul society. It will take place in the Russell Court Hotel on 3rd December at 8 pm. Entry is only €5 per person (5 people per table) and there are some beautiful gifts which have been generously sponsored on offer. This is the UNCSR's first social event since the UNCSR committee has been formed and they are hoping for a great turnout to support this worthy charity.

To see event flyer, please click here.

Prof. Dermot Diamond and Dr. Tony Killard who received Enterprise Ireland Industrial Technologies Commercialisation Awards on Thursday 27th November. These awards are made annually by Enterprise Ireland to researchers who have shown both scientific excellence and an awareness of industry needs and this year were presented by Dr. Jimmy Devins T.D, Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation.

To read more about the awards please click here.

The Higher Education Authority (HEA) hosted an exhibition in the Science Gallery, Trinity College Dublin to celebrate ten years since its Programme for Research for Third Level Institutions (PRTLI), was launched. The NCSR was established using funding from this initiative and so presented an exhibition at this event.

For details of the NCSR exhibition and all other exhibitions, please click here.

DCU CLARITY researchers Dr Tanja Radu  and Professor Dermot Diamond have recently obtained an X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) portable NITON XL3t instrument. Funding for the instrument, to the value of €56,000 was awarded by the Environmental Protection Agency’s STRIVE program.

To read more about this instrument please click here.

The third Commercialisation of University Research Student Project Awards took place on November 10th at Dublin City University Business School during the annual graduation ceremony. This year’s first prize was awarded to a group of students who carried out a commercialisation plan for an Ammonia Breath Monitor, developed by Dr. Tony Killard and his research team in the NCSR.

To read more about the awards and the monitor please click here.

The NCSR held a poster session on Thursday 6th November to give our post-graduate and post-doctoral researchers the opportunity to present their research to their colleagues in the NCSR.

To read more about the poster day and to view a photo gallery of the event, please click here.

A Hot Embossor course took place in the NCSR from Monday 3rd November 2008 to Tuesday 4th November 2008.

To view a photo of the course participants, please click here.

The Solid Phase Microextraction (SPME) course organised by Dr. Mirek Macka (u-FAn research group and Separation Science Cluster (SSC)) was held in the National Centre for Sensor Research, Dublin City University on the 7th and 8th October 2008. This was the fourth annual workshop/course organised by SSC (previous courses include ANN I, ANN II and Molecular Modelling in collaboration with the Adaptive Information Cluster) and the most successful with 35 participants from across Europe.

To read more about the course, please click here.

Dr. Keith Sharrock from HortResearch, New Zealand visited the NCSR on Monday 15th September. Dr. Sharrock is a member of the Biosensors and Biomeasurement team, which specialises in enzymatic sensors, immunosensors, imprinted polymer, optical sensors and biophysical sensors and their applications.

To read more about Dr. Sharrocks research and seminar please click here.

On 11 and 12 September, Drs Ciarán Fagan and Jessica Forde hosted the final partners' meeting of the COMBIO consortium in the NCSR. COMBIO, an acronym for "Composite Materials for the Immobilisation of Biocatalysts", is a network of 7 European companies (from Austria, Finland, Germany, Netherlands and UK) plus 3 universities (Leeds, Delft and DCU).

To read about this meeting please click here.

Deirdre Fox, who works under the supervision of Dr. Gillian McMahon in the Bioanalytical Chemistry and Diagnostics group in the NCSR, has recently been offered a FAS Science Challenge Internship in Dynamic Corporation in Kennedy Space Centre, Florida.

To read more about Deirdre's internship and the FAS Science Challenge please click here.

This years Hamilton Undergraduate Research Symposium drew to a close on Friday 5th September. To mark the end of this programme the annual Hamilton Symposium was held on 4th September. This years symposium was held in conjunction with the Beaufort Scholarship Symposium as both scholarships are run in tandem. During this event, each of the scholars presented the research they have been carrying out during the last ten weeks by giving clear and informative presentations.

To find out more about the symposium and the research projects please click here.

The NCSR hosted Dr. Shane Peper from  Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) as part of continuous effort to build and maintain international recognition of a world class research institution. Dr. Peper is a world renown expert in actinide and lathanide research with an extensive experience in development and optimization of chemical sensors for trace level analysis of ionic species. Such interesting combination of experience and expertise has already resulted in fruitful collaboration with the group of Prof. Dermot Diamond (in particular with Dr. Aleksandar Radu) and the development of first potentiometric sensor for fission products.

To read more about Dr. Pepers visit please click here.

Gary Nijak and Joe Geary from the Talley Research Group (TRG), based in the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, recently spent some time in the NCSR working with members of Fiona Regan’s Research Group. Gary and Joe’s visit was coordinated by Antóin Lawlor of the NCSR, and is a result of the recently agreed research collaboration agreement between DCU and the University of Notre Dame.

To read more about Gary and Joe's research while in the NCSR, please click here.

NCSR's Dr. Tanja Radu wins first prize in the Poster Awards at the conference for her poster entitled Using autonomus sensing devices for environmental monitoring. Dr. Radu’s poster details a new approach in the use of sensors for environmental monitoring applications. The ultimate goal is producing autonomous, field deployable devices for continuous monitoring of target environmental parameters: phosphates in rivers and lakes and heavy metals in airborne dust.

To read more about the conference and Dr. Radu's research please click here.

A training course in Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry is taking place in the NCSR from Thursday 31st July 2008 to Friday 01st August 2008.

To read more about the course please click here

Technology pros serve tennis ace , by Dick Ahlstrom of The Irish Times, 17th July 2008

To read the full article please click here.

The Hamilton Undergraduate Research Scholarship Programme gives students the opportunity to spend 10 weeks during the summer months carrying out research in the National Centre for Sensor Research (NCSR). This year the NCSR is host to two Hamilton Scholars, John Gallagher and Gerard Tobin.

To read more about the Hamilton Programme and John and Gerard's projects please click here.

The Beaufort Scholarship Programme provides students with first-hand experience of a research environment and aims to excite a lasting interest in Science & Technology at all levels of education and increased awareness of environmental research. This year the NCSR hosts its first Beaufort Scholar, Manika Poply.

To read more about the Beaufort Programme and Manika's project please click here.

Crystals hold the key to wear-and-tear disease, by Claire O'Connell of The Irish Times, 19th June 2008

To read the full article please click here .

Enterprise Ireland held their first Applied Research Forum on Wednesday 18th June in Dublin’s Guinness Storehouse. Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr. Jimmy Devins T.D., launched a special publication showcasing 18 of the best Enterprise Ireland funded researchers. One of those researchers showcased in the publication was Dr. Tony Killard from the National Centre for Sensor Research at DCU.

To read more about this event and Dr. Killard's award, please click here.

This years Outstanding Graduate Research Awards cermony took place on Monday 9th June. Prof. Malcolm Smyth, Dean of the Faculty of Health and Science presented the awards to this years winners, Eoin Gillespie and Naomi Walsh. Eoin is a student of NCSRs Brett Paul. Congratulations to both Eoin and Naomi!

To view photographs from this event please click here.

The DCU Annual Teaching and Learning Day and Presentation of the Presidents Awards for Teaching Excellence were held on May 27th.

NCSRs Gillian McMahon was nominated in the Teaching Excellence academic category. Congratulations to Gillian and all of the nominees and winners. To read more about these awards, please click here.

The NCSR organised and hosted an SFI-funded Conference on ‘Printed Functional Materials’ (May 26th – 27th 2008). The symposium focused on the production, characterization and properties of printable functional materials. The meeting also aimed to assess the current state of the art in how these materials are being applied today in the development of leading technologies such as displays, sensors, microfluidics, diagnostic devices and printed electronic systems.

For more information please click here.