Dr Sumesh Sasidharan will research the role of myocardial perfusion on cardiac health and will work with Prof Jacques Huyghe in the Bernal Institute. With a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from National Institute of Technology, India, an Australia-Endeavour Fellowship at the University of Western Australia, he joins UL from Imperial College London. He will join four other MSCA Fellows in the 2019 call of which two are based in the In the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and two in the Faculty of Education and Health Sciences. They are:
- Dr Sergi Morales, who will study the ethical and political issues faced by linguistically diverse societies with Dr Andrew Shorten, Department of Politics and Public Administration. Dr Morales completed his PhD and postdoc in Philosophy at KU Leuven. Dr Morales achieved a score of 100% for his project, one of only three to do so in the social sciences across Europe
- Dr Piotr Godzisz will join the Hate and Hostility Research Group to work on the diffusion of international hate crime norms in EU accession states. He will work with Dr Amanda Haynes, Dep of Sociology and Dr Jennifer Schweppe Law School. Dr Godzisz completed his PhD in Criminology at University College London and will join UL from Birmingham City University
- Dr Dino Carpentras will study the spread of opinions related to vaccine hesitancy using mathematical and computational modelling. Dr Carpentras completed his PhD in Photonics and postdoc at EPFL Lausanne. He will work with Dr Mike Quayle in the Department of Psychology and Prof James Gleeson, Dept of Maths and Statistics
- Dr Lucia Mundo will research the Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) and its role in EBV-driven cancers. Dr Mundo completed her PhD and postdoc in medical biotechnology at the University of Siena and will work with Prof Paul Murray at the Health Research Institute, UL
The quality of the candidates applying to work at the University of Limerick is evidenced in their success rate, where 47% of the University of Limerick proposals received a score of 90% or higher.
UL Vice President for Research Professor Norelee Kennedy said the awards are “prestigious, highly competitive fellowships that bring international scholars to UL and reflect the calibre of the fellows, supervisors, projects and UL as an institution to host them”.
All of the fellows are external to UL and had availed of bursaries to visit the University and undertake the masterclass programme, which we plan to organise again in 2021. UL was the first Irish university to hold a Marie Curie masterclass, with 13 travel bursaries awarded to international applicants across all disciplines.
Sharone O’Loughlin, Research Support Services, UL, explained: “We held a Masterclass with travel bursaries in order to attract more external candidates for the 2019 call. In addition there was a week long preparation programme organised for Education and Health Science researchers by Dr Orla Power Grant. This joint effort worked out well.”
“These training days focus on proposal preparation for the 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (MSCA-IF) call. In 2019, our Masterclass welcomed talented applicants from across the world and their University of Limerick supervisors. With five awards confirmed and another three candidates on the reserve list, this 28% success rate compares to a 11% success rate for the programme in general,” she added.
For further information, contact sharone.oloughlin@ul.ie.