IRSA: Irish Research Staff Association

Membership

Current membership of the IRSA consists of the following individual research staff associations:

	ARCS: Association of Research Contract Staff (UCC).
	DuCRA: DCU Contract Researchers Association..
	GRSA: NUIG Research Staff Association.
	SMDBPS: School of medicine, dentistry and biomedical society postdoc society (Queen's University Belfast).
	TRSA: Trinity Research Staff Association.
	UCDRSA: UCD Research Staff Association.
	University of Limerick RSA.

The IRSA members meet regularly in order to further the purpose and activities of the Organisation, provide a forum for open discussion of issues relevant to members, and debate the policies and vision of the Organisation. The meeting location is decided by the member holding the chair of the Association. Meetings are attended by up to 3 representatives of each member research staff association.

A research staff association of any third level institution in Ireland can apply to become a member of the IRSA. To apply for membership, please contact IRSA.secretary@gmail.com.

Biographies

Below a short biography is given for the IRSA president, secretary, treseasurer as well as each of the chairpersons from the individual RSAs.

Dr. Gordon Dalton: IRSA President & ARCS Chairperson [g.dalton@ucc.ie]
	Gordon Dalton graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 2002 with a degree in Electronic engineering. He completed a PhD in Civil and environmental engineering in the University of Queensland, Australia in 2007. His thesis topic was “Perceptions, performance and economics of renewable energy for Australian tourism accommodation”. Gordon started his position in HMRC in 2008, funded under the Charles Parson Award. His research area is the economics and social-economics of ocean renewable energy. Gordon is also currently the president of the Irish Research Staff Association (IRSA), and the Chair of the UCC branch of the association, ARCS.
Dr. Karen Duffy: IRSA Treasurer & GRSA Chairperson [karen.duffy@nuigalway.ie]
	Karen Duffy completed a B.Sc. (Hons, 1.1) degree in microbiology in NUI-Galway in 1994. She graduated with a Ph.D. degree in Microbiology NUI-Galway in 2001, her thesis work studied the physiological response and regulation of heat-shock proteins in the food-borne pathogen Campylobacter jejuni in response to various applied stresses. Karen moved to University College Dublin in 2000 where she worked on a project funded by a major European pharmaceutical company to develop a diagnostic immunoassay for detection of prions in fractionated bovine blood. Following this, Karen moved back to Galway to work on FIRM-funded project for the development & optimization of real-time PCR molecular detection assays for detection of DNA of a number of food pathogens in various foodstuffs based in the National Diagnostic Centre (2001-2003). In 2002, Karen completed a part-time Diploma in Quality Management awarded by Excellence Ireland Quality Association. She next worked as a Product Development Biochemist with Cambridge Diagnostics Ireland, Galway working on the conceptual design and development of a novel detection medical device and diagnostic immunoassay for detection of the human pathogen Streptococcus pyogens in saliva. Next, Karen worked on a project investigating the pathogenesis of liver disease based at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, Dublin. Karen joined REMEDI as GMP Facility Manager in 2005, since this time she has been actively working to bring the GMP Facility to EU GMP standards and to obtain licensed-status from the Irish Medicines Board for manufacture of Investigational Medicinal Product for human clinical trials. Karen has just concluded a 2-year part-time Executive Masters of Business Administration (MBA) course in J.E. Cairnes School of Business & Economics NUI, Galway.
Dr. Tony McElligot: IRSA Secretary [tony.mcelligott@tcd.ie]
	Tony McElligott is a Research Fellow in the Institute of Molecular Medicine in Trinity College Dublin. A native of Kerry, he completed a BSc in Biochemistry in University College Cork before graduating with a PhD from University of Ulster at Coleraine in 2000. His research interests include the biology of leukemia and novel anti-cancer strategies. He has been involved in the Trinity Research Staff Association since its formation and served as its Chairperson from 2008-2009.
Dr. Sara Morrissey: DuCRA Chairperson [smorri@computing.dcu.ie]
	Dr. Sara Morrissey is a post-doctoral researcher in the Centre for Next Generation Localistaion (CNGL), School of Computing. Following an undgraduate in Applied Computational Linguistics at DCU (BSc. Hons. 2004), she received her PhD from DCU in 2008 with a thesis on Data-driven Machine Translation for Sign Languages. Her current post-doc research extends machine translation work on minority languages in the medical domain, including sign langauges. Sara is also the post-doc and contract researcher representative in the School of Computing and sits at School Meetings and School Research Committee meetings.
Dr. Sean O’Riain: GRSA Chairperson [sean.oriain@deri.org]

Dr. Simon McDade: SMDBPS Chairperson [s.mcdade@qub.ac.uk]
	I am the Chariperson of the Queens school of medicine, dentistry and biomedical science post-doc society. It was formed in 2009. I Graduated with a PhD in Molecular Oncology from QUB in 2004. Currently working under the supervision of Prof Dennis McCance in the Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology. My current interest is in the role of p53 family members in oncogenesis, with a particular interest in utilising next generation sequencing to elucidate transcriptional regulatory regions.
Dr. John Walsh: TRSA Chairperson [walshj8@tcd.ie]
	Dr. John Walsh is a contract researcher with the Centre for Contemporary Irish History, Department of History, Trinity College Dublin. John also lectures with the School of Education, Trinity College. John Walsh is Chairperson of the Trinity Research Staff Association (TRSA) and a member of the Irish Research Staff Association (IRSA). John’s research interests include the history of Irish education, church-state relations in modern Ireland, business and family history, European integration in the late twentieth century and the influence of international organisations on social change in post war Europe. His publications include Patrick Hillery: the official biography (New Island Press, 2008) and The Politics of Expansion: a study of educational policy in the Republic of Ireland 1957-72 (Manchester University Press, 2009).
Dr. Luis Alvarez: UCDRSA Chairperson [luis.alvarez@ucd.ie]
	Luis is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Conway Institute in UCD. He is currently working on the role of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) producing enzymes in innate immunity. Among his current projects, he is studying the processes involved in the infection of epithelial cells by Campylobacter Jejuni. He is currently serving as the Chairman for the UCD Research Staff Association. Before coming to Ireland, he worked on molecular cell imaging at the University of Paris-Sud studying the photophysic and structural effects of ROS on fluorescent proteins and their impact in quantitative live cell imaging techniques. While at the University of Paris-Sud Luis was appointed by the University's President to the Board of the University Scientific Council.