Dr Fergal O’Brien, a lecturer with RCSI, has won this year’s Parc/Engineers Ireland Chartered Engineer of the Year Award. This was the ninth year of the award, which took place on Friday, 4 November at the Alexander Hotel in Dublin.

Dr O’Brien, a biomechanical engineer, won the award for his work on the study of bone and osteoporosis with a project entitled ‘Bone as a composite material and Microcracks and their implications in Osteoporosis’. The project was centered on the process of monitoring microcrack growth, which can cause bone fracture.

Fergal was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to carry out research on orthopaedic tissue engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In October 2004 he was awarded a Science Foundation Ireland, President of Ireland Young Researcher Award (€1.1 million) to set up a laboratory for bone tissue engineering in RCSI.

Sponsors of the award Parc are specialists in recruiting engineers and professional staff to the construction, design and management sector in Ireland and they presented this years winner with a superb John Rocha Waterford Crystal trophy as well as a cheque for €2,500.

“Parc is proud, once again, to sponsor the Chartered Engineer of the Year Award”, said Marian Noone, Chief Executive of Resource Management and Technology. “This is the ninth year of our sponsorship and we are delighted to be associated with the talent and calibre of chartered engineers that this award consistently attracts. This year’s broad range of short-listed projects clearly demonstrates the high standards and variety of skills amongst Ireland’s chartered engineers.”

Engineers Ireland President, Anne Butler, Chartered Engineer, said, "I am delighted to see so many of this years' entries reflecting the way engineering is contributing to, and improving the society we live in". She congratulated the six finalists on having reached the top level of engineering and said "winning the Chartered Engineer of the Year award is considered an outstanding achievement within the profession."

This year’s six short listed projects were:

• Dr Fergal O’Brien (winner): Bone as a Composite Material
• Henry Ritchie: Belfast’s East Bridge Street Arches Foundation
• Henry Ritchie:Cable Stayed Bridge Design
• Anthony Dempsey: The Downland Gridshell
• Barry Crozier: Enhancing the Performance of Oversized Plant
• Samir Kulenovic: Seismic Design in a Non-Seismic Region

The competition was open to all chartered engineers who have completed their Engineers Ireland professional review during the past year.