Four young scientists have received research awards totalling €5.8 million, the first to be made under the President of Ireland Young Researcher Award scheme, writes Dick Ahlstrom, Science Editor.
The four went to Áras an Uachtaráin yesterday to meet President McAleese, who serves as patron of the award programme administered by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI).
The new funding scheme is for promising young researchers based in the Republic. These first recipients include two Irish scientists and one each from Spain and Denmark.
All will receive funding of up to €1.2 million over a five-year period. The exceptional funding for post-doctoral students in their late 20s and early 30s is meant to enable them to reach international standards early in their careers.
The President expressed her delight in supporting the scheme and meeting the young researchers who will benefit from it.
"This award is being given to young researchers at the start of their careers in fields that are critical to Ireland's economic and social prosperity," the director general of SFI, Dr William Harris, stated yesterday.
SFI uses cash from the National Development Plan 2000-2006 to fund research in biotechnology and information and communications technology.
Dr Mario Fares from NUI Maynooth received one of the awards. Originally from Valencia, Spain, he uses computers and biomedical analysis to study human proteins and identify possible new drug therapies.
Dr Emmeline Hill of University College Dublin, and a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, will study parasites in cattle. She is also studying the endangered Irish draught horse population.
Dr Jens Erik Neilsen of University College Dublin is from Denmark and originally studied at the University of Copenhagen. He researches the structure and function of human enzymes.
Dr Fergal O'Brien of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland is a Trinity graduate and is a specialist in the study of bone mechanics and biology and bone tissue engineering. His work is important in understanding how osteoporosis can weaken bone.