An Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs & Trade, Simon Coveney TD, and Chargé d’affaires of the US Embassy in Ireland, Mr Reece Smyth, have announced the Fulbright Irish Awardees for 2018-2019, with four of the awards being made to RCSI. The recipients were presented with their awards at a ceremony in the US Ambassador’s Residence, Phoenix Park.

The Fullbright Awards will enable students, academics and professionals from HEIs in Ireland and Europe to go to leading US institutions to study and collaborate with experts in their fields.

There were four RCSI Fulbright awardees among the 37 Irish recipients. These are:

• Michelle Flood, Lecturer in the School of Pharmacy, who will visit the University of Texas to apply creative, human-centered, design-based approaches to define and solve complex health care problems.
• Dr Cian O’Leary, Pharmaceutics Lecturer in the Tissue Engineering Research Group (TERG), who will visit the University of California to develop tissue-engineered in vitro models of breast cancer metastasis.
• Fergal O’Shaugnessy, Honorary Clinical Lecturer at the School of Pharmacy, who will visit Columbia University in New York to develop methods to identify women who are at risk of developing potentially life-threatening blood clots after childbirth.
• Dr Olga Piskareva, Principal Investigator at the Department of Molecular and Cellular Therapeutics, who will visit Johns Hopkins University to examine new methods to monitor and capture disrupt the spread of cells in the childhood cancer neuroblastoma in real time. 

Welcoming the announcement, Professor Cathal Kelly, CEO/Registrar of RCSI said: “I am delighted that an unprecedented four Fulbright Awards have been awarded to RCSI which is a testament to the innovative and transformative research being carried out by our academic staff. These awards will enable the RCSI recipients to serve as ambassadors for RCSI, while enriching their research and gaining new platforms to build relationships with leading institutions and researchers in the United States and beyond.”

An Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs & Trade, Simon Coveney TD said: “I am delighted to extend my warmest congratulations to the 37 Irish Fulbright Awardees for 2018 – 2019. People are at the heart of the extraordinary relationship between Ireland and the United States, and the Fulbright Commission has an unrivalled record in selecting the very best people as Fulbrighters. This year’s Awardees will have the exciting opportunity to study, work, and experience life in the US, to forge new relationships, and to represent the best of contemporary Ireland to the United States. I wish this year’s Awardees every success for their time in the United States.”

Chargé d’affaires Reece Smyth, U.S. Embassy, added: “I warmly congratulate the 2018-2019 cohort of Irish Awardees. The Fulbright Awards are highly competitive, globally recognised, and associated with excellence and prestige. We are proud to have such bright minds embarking on educational and cultural exchanges to the United States, and we look forward to seeing the fruits of their studies and research when they return to Ireland.”

Dr Sarah Ingle, Chair of the Board of the Fulbright Commission in Ireland said: “The high standard and expertise of Fulbright scholar and student award recipients continues to increase after more than 60 years in Ireland. They are being providing with a great opportunity, but also a responsibility to continue Senator Fulbright’s vision of creating avenues for mutual understanding and sharing of ideas. The Commission has full confidence in the new awardees and wishes them every success in their Fulbright experience."

This year’s Fulbright recipients are from diverse disciplines spanning science, languages, technology, medicine, literature and the arts. The Fulbright Programme in Ireland has been a key driver in cross-atlantic collaborative research for over 60 years.