Thomas Rabbitte – Byrne Research Group

12 July, 202425 October, 2024 Joe Conferences, news, Presentations, Team

Thomas & Joe speak at EuChemS-9, Sophie and Hannah present posters

Research from the group was presented in two oral presentations and two poster presentations which featured in the programme of ECC-9, held at Dublin Convention Centre 7-11 July 2024. This major European conference, the largest chemistry event ever held in Ireland, had more than 1500 delegates and a wide international audience.

On the Tuesday, Thomas presented his progress on “Self-templating mechanically interlocked systems as dual activity antimicrobial candidates”, as part of the Link4Lectin project, prompting several interesting discussions with leading supramolecular chemists in attendance. Joe presented “Carbohydrate-functionalised metal complexes: targeting pathogens for therapeutic and sensing applications” as part of the Chemistry Meets Biology for Health Theme on the Thursday.

All of the team attended the meeting, with Sophie and Hannah presenting posters on their work as part of the poster sessions, Wanyujin working as a conference volunteer, and Karolina also joined the conference representing her employer Sterling. Joe judged the posters in the Catalysis theme.

11 June, 2024 Joe news, Team

Welcome to our summer students!

This summer we are joined by two visiting students from Arcadia University Study Abroad Programme and one student from Zhejiang Normal University (as part of UCD Chemistry’s ZJNU Summer School). Wanyujin is also back with us as a research assistant on the SugarCoat project. We hope it is a productive exchange for everyone!

26 October, 202326 October, 2023 Joe Awards, Conferences, Presentations

Hannah wins poster prize at ICI Congress

Members of the group attended the Institute of Chemistry of Ireland’s Congress in the Great Hall of Queens University Belfast this week. Two projects were presented as posters: Hannah gave some updates on SugarCoat, while Sophie and Thomas shared a poster highlighting the design of the Link4Lectin IRC Laureate project. Hannah also did an ‘elevator pitch’ for her project and was winner of a poster prize!

It was a very interesting event focussing on sustainability, and also featured the Eva Philbin Award Lecture from our UCD colleague Prof. Susan Quinn.

19 June, 202319 June, 2023 Joe Conferences, Outreach

Irish Chemistry Colloquium in Galway

Members of the group attended the annual Institute of Chemistry of Ireland event, hosted this year in Galway on 14-15 May 2023. Joe was a judge for the student awards at this event, and – as advisor to the ICI Young Chemists Network – had various meetings about the future direction of the organisation for young chemists. Several new committee members joined the YCN over the course of the Colloquium.

23 January, 202322 May, 2024 Joe news, Team

Joe moves to UCD as Lecturer in Bioinorganic Chemistry

In January 2023, Joe joined the Faculty of UCD School of Chemistry as Lecturer in Bioinorganic Chemistry, and the Byrne Group will be moving to Dublin as well. This is a fantastic opportunity to grow the research group into the future and build on the SFI Starting Investigator Research Grant. Joe is very grateful to colleagues at NUI Galway for all their support in the last few years as he built independence – this was vital to securing his first academic post.

Dr Hannah Crory will also join the team at UCD and new PhD student Thomas Rabbitte, and we will be based in the Synthetic Inorganic Chemistry Lab in Science Centre South alongside the Phillips and Hooper Groups. Joe is one of 4 new Faculty members joining UCD at this time, part of an expanding team in the School of Chemistry (pictured below).