Fourth year BSc Physiotherapy student Aoife Synnott was drawn to a career in physiotherapy which she describes as “exciting, person-centred and allows you to make a meaningful difference to people’s lives in terms of rehabilitation.”

A record number of almost 300 philanthropic and business leaders attended the 12th annual President’s Gala Dinner organised by the University of Limerick Foundation and held for the first time in a marquee on the lawns of the University campus overlooking the river Shannon. A fully-funded PhD scholarship programme to support excellence research with impact was announced on the night with proceeds from the event to support the initiative. The UL Research Impact PhD Scholarship programme has been established to nurture the next generation of researchers whose work will have benefits for industry, society, economy, culture and the world at large. Johnson & Johnson have pledged to support four scholarships through the fund.

Researchers at the University of Limerick are taking on the challenge to improve the viability of biomass processing. The UL team are part of a consortium involved in the €4 million project ‘CellulosomePlus’ involving nine private and public-sector partners.

The Irish Centre for Composites Research (IComp) at the University of Limerick has been awarded €240,000 by the European Space Agency (ESA) for a new space materials research project, entitled “Demisable Bio-Composite Materials”. The 18 month project which commenced last month is led by Dr Walter Stanley, Lecturer in Mechanical, Aeronautical, and Biomedical Engineering at UL.

Dr Michael Griffin, School of Culture and Communication at UL has been announced as joint winner of the 2015 Archibald Elias ASECS (American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies) Irish-American Research Fellowship.

This award will enable Dr Griffin to pursue documentary research at the Beinecke Library, Yale University and at the Free Library of Philadelphia towards a new Cambridge University Press Edition (co-edited with Dr David O’Shaughnessy, Trinity College Dublin) of the Collected Letters of Oliver Goldsmith (pictured above).

The University of Limerick is celebrating International Women’s Day with the launch of the UL bid for an Athena SWAN Award, which recognises and celebrates good practice in recruiting, retaining and promoting women in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine) in higher education.  At a UL conference to mark International Women’s Day chaired by RTE’s Claire Byrne, UL President Professor Don Barry reiterated the institution’s commitment to gender equality at all levels in UL.