A UCD researcher has been awarded the Irish Research Council’s Impact Award, announced today as part of the IRC’s annual Researcher of the Year Awards. This is the second year in a row that one of UCD’s researchers has claimed the prestigious prize for outstanding Research Impact.

Dr Colin Keogh, a former Associate Researcher with UCD SmartLab and PhD researcher of UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, received the award for making a highly significant impact outside of academia.

Also awarded was Dr Tara Dirilgen, UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science, with the Thomas Mitchell Medal of Excellence for being the top-ranked postdoctoral researcher in the STEM category. Dr Brynne Gilmore from UCD School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems was commended for her achievements in research in the Early Career category.

IRC Director Peter Brown congratulated this year’s winners: “Our annual Researcher of the Year awards are about recognising the very best and brightest of the Council’s current and former awardees. The standard this year was exceedingly high, and the judging panel found it difficult in many cases to choose a winner, which is a testament to the high calibre of researchers we have here in Ireland.

Dr Colin Keogh

UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering

Dr Colin Keogh is currently leading new research in the Energy, SDGs, Additive Manufacturing and Innovation fields at UCD, with a focus on policy and technology forecasting, enhanced innovation methodologies, third world impact and integrating advanced technologies into social, environmental, philanthropic and entrepreneurial activities. He is also a technology consultant and developer, advising a number of companies and bodies, from small start-ups to government departments, in areas such as disruptive technologies, engineering practice, advanced energy systems, innovation, design and early stage growth and prototyping.

Colin is cofounder of Sapien Innovation, an innovation consultancy specialising in applied innovation, creativity and design thinking services, and The Rapid Foundation, a social enterprise which aims to disperse 3D printing technology to developing world locations and conduct printing workshops with schools in the UK and Ireland. His work with the Rapid Foundation has included the design of 3D printed prosthetics for children with missing or ‘non-standard’ limbs.

This year, he started a global open source response to the ventilator shortage, building out a team to design and develop open-source ventilators to assist with the fight against Covid-19.

Colin has also previously been named as one of Forbes 30 Under 30 in Science, as Junior Chamber International’s Ten Outstanding Young People and as the 2017 IT and Tech Professional of the Year at the Irish Early Career Awards.

Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact, Professor Orla Feely said: “Colin is a great researcher, always with an eye on impact. He is always looking for areas of need where his research can make a difference be it in the developing world, through his work with 3D printing, or his work in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Hear more from Colin about his research to date and his reaction to winning the award here.

Dr Tara Dirilgen

UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science

Dr Tara Dirilgen’s research investigates soil, plant and pollinator interactions. Through her work at UCD, she explores how belowground interactions (soil biodiversity and plant roots) effect plant-pollinator interactions and how the use of pesticides in crop protection might alter this. The findings will inform management of agricultural systems to promote both biodiversity conservation and food production.

Commenting on what attracted her to this area of research, Tara said: “The diversity of life that surrounds us, be it plants, insects, birds and so on, fascinates me to no end. With this comes the desire to understand biodiversity, the threats causing its loss and the subsequent impact on services the environment provides such as pollination. I am driven by curiosity and wanting to add to the existing pool of knowledge that feeds into developing solutions to current threats to biodiversity. For example, as pollinators are important components of aboveground diversity, bottom-up effects of soil biodiversity on pollinators such as bees, could have widespread ecological and economic consequences.”

Dr Brynne Gilmore

UCD School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems

Dr Brynne Gilmore is an applied global health researcher, focusing on strengthening and advancing the understanding of health systems and programmes primarily in low and middle-income countries. Within her work, Brynne partners with communities, non-governmental organisations, UN agencies such as the World Health Organization and academic institutions around the world to understand and improve community health and community engagement approaches, using theory-driven evaluation.

Commenting on what draws her to do work in this area, she said: “Global health is a multi-disciplinary field that aims to improve health equity worldwide by focusing on populations and health systems that are underserved. I am driven to this field to support the strengthening of health systems and interventions by bridging the gap between theory and practice, in order to reach health equity for all populations worldwide.”

Other IRC Winners

Dr Jane Suiter, Dublin City University (DCU), has received the Irish Research Council Researcher of the Year award for 2020.

Dr Kathryn Schoenrock, NUI Galway was awarded the Early Career Researcher of the Year Award.

Edmond Gubbins, Mary Immaculate College, was awarded the ‘Eda Sagarra Medal of Excellence’ for being the top-ranked postgraduate researcher in the AHSS category. Mr Gubbins’s research focuses on music education at primary level in Ireland.

Shane Somers, University College Cork, was awarded the ‘Jane Grimson Medal of Excellence’ for being the top-ranked postgraduate researcher in the STEM category. Mr Somer’s research seeks to determine the drivers of variation in the gut microbiome of a wild bird, the great tit.

Dr. Edward Molloy, University College Cork, was awarded the ‘Maurice J Bric Medal of Excellence’ for being the top-ranked postdoctoral researcher in the AHSS category. Dr. Molloy’s research explores the nature and form of Irish separatism and the ideas that informed radical Irish nationalism in the nineteenth century.