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Joe Byrne is Lecturer in Bioinorganic Chemistry at University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland and a Fellow of the interdisciplinary Conway Institute. He is an Irish chemistry researcher, with international experience and collaborators who is consolidating his research group in his first faculty position. Joe is currently leading three funded research projects. Joe is also enthusiastic about education, and has a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education from the Centre for Education, Learning and Teaching and University of Galway.
Prior to moving to UCD, Joe was an Honorary Research Lecturer in the School of Chemistry, University of Galway (2019-22), where he led an SFI-funded Starting Investigator Research Grant, developing carbohydrate-based sensing materials as platforms for diagnostic devices, with applications in clinical (bacterial infections) and environmental settings (contamination).
Other projects in the lab include: SugarCoat, developing antimicrobial materials in collaboration with Queen’s University Belfast (HEA North South Research Programme); Link4Lectin, and IRC Laureate Award project developing new antimicrobial metallodrug candidates; GlycoMetalGuard, a Frontiers for the Future project in antimicrobial materials, and various student-led scholarships on luminescent sensors based on lanthanides or boronic acids.
Joe did postdoctoral research in University of Bern (Marie Curie Individual Fellowship, supervised by Prof Martin Albrecht), researching carbohydrate-functionalised organometallic catalysts, and Trinity College Dublin (supervised by Prof Thorri Gunnlaugsson), investigating lanthanide-directed self-assembly and supramolecular chemistry. He also completed his PhD in the Gunnlaugsson Group at TCD.
Joe’s research interests are in carbohydrates, organic synthesis, luminescent sensors, anti-microbial agents and coordination chemistry. He is Registrar of the Institute of Chemistry of Ireland, Secretary of the RSC Carbohydrate Interest Group and the Irish Biological Inorganic Chemistry Society, and advisor to the ICI Young Chemists Network. He also sits on the committee of the RSC Republic of Ireland Local Section, and its Ireland Regional Steering Group.
Career summary:
| 2022-now | Lecturer in Bioinorganic Chemistry (UCD) | |
| 2019-2022 | SFI Starting Investigator Research Grant Fellow (NUI Galway) Honorary Research Lecturer in the School of Chemistry | |
| 2016-2019 | Postdoctoral Research Fellow (University of Bern, Prof. Albrecht) Marie Skłodowska Curie Individual Fellow (2017-19) | |
| 2017 | Visiting Researcher at University of Nottingham | |
| 2014-2016 | Postdoctoral Researcher (Trinity College Dublin, Prof. Gunnlaugsson) | |
| 2015 | Visiting Researcher (Hong Kong University, Prof V. W.-W. Yam) | |
| 2010-2015 | PhD (Trinity College Dublin, Supervisor: Prof T. Gunnlaugsson) | |
| 2009 | SFI UREKA Summer Research Studentship | |
| 2006-2010 | BSc (Hons) (Maynooth University) | |
Byrne Research Group 