Archives: Awardees

Cormac is a biotech entrepreneur, manages a biotech investment portfolio and is involved with two angel investment groups in Ireland. He was the founder of Biotrin, a virology diagnostics company, and Argutus Medical, and is currently Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine and Medicinal Chemistry at UCD.

Dr Cormac Kilty who was born in Cork and following his early education in Cork moved to Dublin where he attended CBC Monkstown.

Dr Kilty next attended UCD to study science where he reached two milestones, obtaining his BSc degree and meeting his future wife, Anne. He subsequently went on to obtain a PhD in Zoology and Biochemistry from University College Dublin, Ireland.

Dr. Kilty has carried out post-doctoral research in protein chemistry and immunology at the University of Texas at Austin and at University College Dublin.

His subsequent career exemplifies that of the rare individual with a passion for science married to keen business acumen. It is often said that scientists and doctors make poor businessmen and managers, Dr Kilty has proven that is not the case.

He joined the Diagnostics Division of Baxter Healthcare in 1986 and served as the Head of their European Research and Development group in Switzerland from 1987 to 1991.

He was founder and CEO of Biotrin Technologies Ltd. in Dublin from 1992-08, founder and past Chairman of Opsona Theraputics, Dublin 2004-09 and founder and CEO of Argutus Medical, specialising in the development of novel biomarkers of kidney damage. He is the founder and recent past Chair of the Irish BioIndustry Association.

More recently he has served as the Chief Technical Officer of EKF Diagnostics and a Director of Nexvet Bioparma.

He was a previous Director of NovaUCD and has received a number of prestigious awards over his career including the Biolink Life Science Achievement Award which was presented to him by Mary McAleese in 2007.

Despite the successful career in biotechnology he has maintained strong links with UCD. Dr Kilty represents all that we strive for in research excellence and innovation. He is Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine and Medicinal Chemistry at UCD, and also has strong ties to UCD hockey having served as its President since 1998.

In December 2013 Dr Kilty received an Honorary degree of Doctor of Science from UCD.

Sandra is Director of the National Library of Ireland (NLI). She has worked as Director of the Digital Repository of Ireland at the Royal Irish Academy and has developed the infrastructure for the digital preservation of cultural and social data. She was named by Silicon Republic as one of the top women in technology.

Dr Sandra Collins was appointed as the Director of the National Library of Ireland in 2015. Her interdisciplinary career encompasses research and innovation from mathematics to cultural heritage. Sandra graduated from UCD with first class joint honours in mathematics and applied mathematics, and a PhD in nonlinear fluid dynamics. Previous roles include mathematics lecturer in DCU, master researcher in Ericsson telecommunications, scientific programme manager in Science Foundation Ireland, and founding director of the Digital Repository of Ireland in the Royal Irish Academy. In 2013 she was named in the Top 38 Irish Technology Women by Technology Voice, and in 2014 as one of Silicon Republic’s Top 100 Women in Technology. She led the Inspiring Ireland digital cultural platform, which won three Irish eGovernment Awards in 2015 and was nominated for a World Summit Award in 2016. Sandra is a member of the Executive of the Conference of European National Librarians and the Council of the Research Data Alliance, and is a member of the Irish Government’s Expert Advisory Group on Commemorations, and the Boards of the Chester Beatty, the Irish Manuscripts Commission and the Irish Consortium of National and University Libraries (CONUL).

Jack has been a key part of Dublin’s all-conquering Gaelic football side. At 26, he already has five All-Ireland titles to his name and he was on the team that won an unprecedented five titles last year. He plays his club football with Clontarf. His father Noel also represented Dublin in football.

McCaffrey studied medicine at University College Dublin (UCD), where his classmates included middle-distance runner Mark English. English issued a challenge to McCaffrey, himself considered football’s fastest player, to take him on over 100 metres. Jack McCaffrey is a qualified medical doctor at St Luke’s Hospital, Kilkenny, specialising in paediatric medicine.

Playing career

In April 2013, McCaffrey won a National Football League winners’ medal as Dublin defeated Tyrone by 0–18 to 0–17 to win the 2013 National Football League. He made his championship debut against Westmeath in the 2013 Leinster Senior Football Championship. He scored a solo goal in the 2013 All-Ireland quarter-final against Cork. Still teenaged, he played in the 2013 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final, the first such final he would play in. McCaffrey, who was substituted at half-time, recalled how he “got roasted by Kevin McLoughlin”. He played twice and netted for Ireland against Australia in the 2013 International Rules Series. In November 2013, he was named as All Stars Young Footballer of the Year.

In November 2015, McCaffrey received the highest individual honour in the sport when he was named as All Stars Footballer of the Year. He did so in spite of contracting food poisoning “in around the Thursday” before the 2015 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final, which left him unable to finish the game.

McCaffrey missed the 2016 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship due his travels to Ethiopia, then Kenya, Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania.

In December 2016, McCaffrey confirmed that he would be available again for selection in 2017.

McCaffrey played in the 2017 All-Ireland final win but left the pitch early after sustaining what later proved to be an anterior cruciate ligament injury. A month after the final, McCaffrey had surgery.

McCaffrey returned for Dublin against Longford as a substitute in June 2018. Another substitute appearance in the Leinster final against Laois followed.

McCaffrey was named Man of the Match after his team’s 2018 final victory. Another All Star followed, as did a second Footballer of the Year nomination.

McCaffrey won the man of the match award in the drawn 2019 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final as well; a second consecutive award, “RTÉ veterans” were reported to be finding it difficult to recall such an occurrence ever before. He was top scorer (1–3) from open play. This compared with the 3–14 from his previous 38 championship games. The three points were also a classic hat-trick, sent over with fist and both feet. Defensively, he forced eight turnovers of possession.

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Dalton is the Chief Executive of the semi-state Dublin Airport Authority. His retailing career began as a store manager in New Zealand and he went on to become Chief Executive of Morrisons, the fourth largest supermarket chain in the UK. He has also served as Chief Executive of Brown Thomas.

Dalton Philips is the Group Chief Executive of daa plc since October 2017 and is a member of the Board of ACI Europe.

His career began with Jardine Matheson, with roles in New Zealand, Australia and Spain. He then spent seven years with Walmart in Brazil and Germany.

In 2005 Dalton joined the Weston family, as CEO of luxury goods retailer Brown Thomas Group, and in 2007 as Chief Operating Officer for Loblaw Companies Ltd; Canada’s largest retailer.

Between 2010 and 2015 Dalton was Chief Executive of Wm Morrison Plc, the UK’s 4th largest supermarket chain, and 2nd largest fresh food manufacturer. Morrisons has over 600 stores, employs approximately 120,000 people and serves 12.5 million customers every week.

Dalton has a BA from University College Dublin, an MBA from Harvard Business School and an honorary Doctorate of Management from Bradford University. Dalton is fluent in Portuguese and Spanish and also holds a private pilot’s licence.

Róisín is an Irish architect and designer and co-founder of Heneghan Peng Architects. She was shortlisted for Architects’ Journal ‘Woman Architect of the Year’ in 2014. She has won numerous awards and her work includes the Grand Museum of Egypt and the Giants Causeway Visitor Centre.

Roisin Heneghan is an architect and co-founder of heneghan peng architects, a practice working with landscape, urban planning and architecture with offices in Dublin and Berlin. She received a Bachelor of Architecture from University College Dublin and a master’s in Architecture from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.

The practice has a diverse portfolio of work including; The Giant’s Causeway Visitors’ Centre in Northern Ireland, completed 2012, The Library and School of Architecture for the University of Greenwich in London, completed in 2014, the Palestinian Museum in Birzeit, completed 2016, The National Gallery of Ireland Historic Wings Refurbishment, opened June 2017, the Museum Tonofenfabrik Lahr, opened February 2018, and The Grand Egyptian Museum which is under construction.

The work of heneghan peng has been exhibited and published widely including multiple participations at the Venice Biennale. heneghan peng have been the winners of many open architectural competitions, most notably for the Grand Egyptian Museum which attracted 1,557 entries from around the world. More recently, heneghan peng won the international design competition for the Canadian Canoe Museum in Ontario, Canada. The built work of the practice has been nominated and shortlisted for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award and been nominated for the RIBA Stirling Prize.

Roisin Heneghan has taught extensively most recently at Yale University and lectured widely. She has served as a jury member on several international architectural competitions and was on the 2016 jury for the RIBA Stirling prize.

Delia is Professor of Food Safety at the University of Greenwich. A veterinary epidemiologist and food safety expert, Delia’s work focuses on using a One Health lens to creatively examine how veterinary research can enhance connections for ecosystems, animal health and human health. 

Delia is an epidemiologist and veterinarian with 20 years’ experience in developing countries. She co-leads research animal and human health at the International Livestock Research Institute in Kenya and leads work on food safety the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Human Nutrition and Health. Her research interests include emerging diseases, participatory epidemiology, gender and animal welfare. Her career has spanned the private sector, field-level community development and aid management, as well as research.

She graduated and worked at several leading universities including University College Dublin, Edinburgh University, the Free University of Berlin and Cornell University

She has lived and worked in Asia, west and east Africa and authored or co-authored more than 200 peer-reviewed publications as well as training courses, briefs, films, articles, chapters and blog posts.

She was a member of the writing team for the United Nations High-Level Panel of Experts commissioned report on sustainable livestock, and an advisor to the World Health Organisation Thematic Reference Group on Environment, Agriculture and Infectious Diseases of Poverty. She received the Trevor Blackburn award for contributions to animal health and welfare in developing countries in 2014. She is an honorary lecturer at Moi University, (Kenya) College of Health Science and a member of several editorial boards.

Her research program focuses on the design and promotion of risk-based approaches to food safety in livestock products in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. She is also a key player on ILRI’s Ecohealth/ One health approach to the control of zoonotic emerging infectious diseases project for Southeast Asia.

NRI Biography

Professor Delia Grace Randolph joined the University of Greenwich in May 2020. She was formerly Program Leader (joint) for the Animal and Human Health Program at the International Livestock Research Institute, based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Originally trained as a veterinarian, she worked for five years in mainly large animal practice in Lancashire, UK. After that she worked as a volunteer for three years in Bangladesh supporting livestock development.

Subsequently, she undertook a MSc at the University of Edinburg, Scotland and then a PhD at the Free University Berlin, in Germany. Her post-doctoral position was with Cornell University and ILRI, focusing on food safety. Her MSc and PhD were both on vector-borne animal diseases in Africa: namely heartwater and trypanosomiasis.

From 2006 to 2020 she worked at ILRI mainly in One Health/Ecohealth, that is research at intersection of the health of the environment, animals and people.

This has involved work on emerging zoonoses such as highly pathogenic avian influenza, Rift Valley fever and more recently COVID-19. In addition, she has researched neglected zoonoses such as brucellosis.

Her PhD was on antimicrobial resistance and as this area has risen up the development agenda, she and her team have built a large portfolio of projects on agriculture-associated antimicrobial resistance.

Her research has mainly focused on food safety in informal markets in low and middle income countries. Her research approach is based on risk analysis, adapted to the context by approaches such as participatory epidemiology.

She studies food safety in systems and as such investigates trade-offs and synergies with livelihoods, gender, equity, nutrition, environment and other relevant factors.

Overall, she is interested in sustainable animal agriculture what innovations, interventions, and shifts in mindset are needed to maximise the benefits for poor consumers, farmers and value chain actors while minimising the harms for human health, animal health and well-being and ecosystem services.

She has worked with the World Animal Health Organisation, the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organisation, the World Bank and other international, regional and national organisations.

She has published in high impact factor journals such as the Lancet and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. She co-authored the first and so far, only book on food safety in informal markets