Science & Stormont

Dr. Geetha Srinivasan CChem CSci, is a Senior Research Fellow at School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Queen’s University Belfast (QUB). After qualifying her PhD in Applied Chemistry from Southern India, she moved to Northern Ireland in 2006 as a post- doctoral research fellow at Queen’s University Ionic Liquid Laboratories. She has rich experience in leading projects at the interface of academia and industry. Her high impact research contributions in tackling environmental challenges using ionic liquids have been well received within scientific community and beyond. Geetha is an award winning scientist and has placed Queen’s University in the top one percent of global universities by receiving outstanding women in science award from L’Oreal-UNESCO-Royal Society in 2012 for her work on ionic liquids in biomedical applications. She is also the recipient of three Institute of Chemical Engineering - IChemE awards and Nicklin Medal in 2013 as a key player in an environmental mitigation project dealing with toxic heavy metal removal from petrochemical streams, which has been commercialised transforming adsorbent materials from 30 mg to 60 tonnes real industrial plant and running successfully. Her research leadership has contributed significantly to the research partnership between QUB and PETRONAS – a Malaysian petrochemical industry since 2011. Geetha has been showcased by RSC as one of the 175 faces of Chemistry in 2014 and has been a speaker at the Science and Stormont event in 2015. She is a member of Queen’s University Belfast Antimicrobial Network developing smart materials for medical device applications. As a passionate scientist she has delivered several public lectures in ionic liquid applications and organises a street science activity called Soapbox Science to promote science simultaneously showcasing Northern Ireland’s women in science. 
 

Prof. Nicolae Corcionivoschi is a Senior Scientific Officer in Food Microbiology Unit at the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute in Belfast and is also head of the UK reference laboratory for Milk and Milk Products. Having originally studied at Banat University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, King Michael I of Romania, Nicolae went on to study for his PhD in Microbiology at the University of Edinburgh, before working at University College Dublin and the National Children Research Centre, in Ireland. His research interests include bacterial virulence, isolation and testing of novel pre and probiotics, development of novel technologies for a more efficient detection of foodborne pathogens. His laboratory is performing advanced research in developing methodologies for quantification of Campylobacter in poultry based on virulence of individual species and also identification of novel genes involved in the pathogenesis of this microorganism. Prof. Corcionivoschi’s group is also performing research trying to understand the composition of the chicken gut microbiota and how this relates to the presence of bacteria posing a threat to human health and especially in finding ways to manipulate the gut microbiota to reduce their presence.

Dr Patrick SM Dunlop is a Lecturer in Engineering Materials within the Nanotechnology and Integrated Bioengineering Centre (NIBEC) at Ulster University.  He is a Chartered Biologist, with a strong academic background in applied biology and chemistry.  Patrick’s research activities focus on the development of nanomaterials and devices for the disinfection of water, air and self-cleaning/disinfecting surfaces, primarily via photocatalysis. Additional interests lie within in the design of biomedical sensors, and in particular for the rapid detection of antibiotic resistant pathogens – he is a member of the judging panel for the Nesta £10M Longitude Prize.  Locally, Patrick is the Chair of the NI AMR Network, a ‘One Health’ focused multidisciplinary body bringing together over 100 members from academia, industry, and government to discuss AMR issues and collaborate to find solutions.

Dr Robert Grundy has a 16 year career in Pharma and Biotech which began as a research scientist in Schering-Plough in Milan and continued at GlaxoSmithKline in the Neurology and GI CEDD at Harlow where he led multi-disciplinary drug discovery teams and was involved in Business Development strategy. Rob served as Chief Scientific Officer with Cerebricon, a preclinical CRO based in Finland where he was responsible for the scientific output, client liaison and quality control and was involved in business growth, commercial development and fund raising activity. In 2008, he became a founding member of Almac Discovery, contributing significantly to the establishment and growth of the business, building a pipeline of oncology therapeutic assets through licensing and strategic partnerships. In 2014 Rob founded Anglezarke Life Sciences Ltd, a business development, commercialisation and growth strategy consultancy in the Life Sciences sector. Rob serves as an advisor to industry academia and government and co-chairs Life and Health Sciences on the Department for the Economy’s MATRIX panel.
Rob has PhD in Neuroscience from Manchester University, and an Honours degree in Pharmacology from Liverpool University.   

Dr Michael McBride was appointed to the post of Chief Medical Officer for the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety in September 2006.
 
Prior to joining the department he had been Medical Director at the Royal Group of Hospitals from August 2002.
 
Dr McBride graduated with Distinction from Queen’s University Belfast in 1986 and completed his undergraduate and postgraduate training in Northern Ireland.  In 1991 he attained a Research Fellowship at St Mary’s Medical School and Imperial College London, where he carried out research into new drug treatments for HIV.
 
Dr McBride has been a Consultant in the Health Service since 1994 when he was appointed Consultant Physician in HIV medicine at the Royal Group of Hospitals and has more than 10 years health service management experience.
 
He has a longstanding interest in continuing medical education and was Postgraduate Clinical Tutor in the Royal Group of Hospitals between 1996 and 2000 and Director of Education in the Royal Hospitals from 2000.
 
As Medical Director at the Royal Hospitals, he contributed to strategic change at trust, regional and national level. As the Trust lead for clinical and social care governance, he had responsibilities for all aspects of clinical quality and patient safety.
 
Dr McBride took up the post of Chief Medical Officer during a time of significant change for Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland with responsibilities for Policy and Strategy in relation to Public Health, Quality and Safety and Research and Development.  He also provides strategic advice to Minister and other Government departments on health related matters.  He has been closely involved in the development of the new Health and Social Care structures, post Review of Public Administration, including the establishment of the Public Health Agency and also in developing a range of Service Frameworks across Northern Ireland.
 
At the request of the Health Minister Dr McBride took up the post of Chief Executive of Belfast Health and Social Services Trust in 2014.  He combines this role with Chief Medical Officer. As Chief Executive Dr McBride is head of an integrated health and social care Trust which is a corporate parent to more than 700 looked after children and which provides hospital-based and social care services to the population of Belfast, as well as most of Northern Ireland’s regional specialist services.  He has responsibility for key Ministerial priorities, corporate responsibility for the Trust’s 20,000 employees, and oversees the Trust’s annual budget of almost £1.3bn.
 

Professor Michael Tunney is a Chair in Clinical Pharmacy at the School of Pharmacy, Queen’s University Belfast. His research programme focuses primarily on the improved detection and treatment of lung infection in patients with respiratory diseases such as cystic fibrosis (CF), non-CF bronchiectasis and COPD.  He has also been involved in a number of studies investigating MRSA prevalence/infection control in nursing homes and antimicrobial prescribing in both nursing and residential homes. He has published over 100 research papers in peer-reviewed journals and serves on a number of scientific advisory boards as well as editorial boards.





 

Prof. Paul Ross is Head of the College of Science Engineering and Food Science at University College Cork (UCC) since August 2014.  Prior to that he was Head of the Teagasc (National) Food Research Programme (Moorepark & Ashtown Food Research Centres) which included the role of Managing Director of Moorepark Technology Ltd. – an ultramodern Dairy Pilot Plant facility. Paul is also a Principal Investigator in the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre (APC) and was the first Research Professor appointed by University College Cork (in 2012). He graduated with a B.Sc. in Microbiology/Biochemistry in 1984 and with a PhD in Microbiology in 1989, both from UCC. His main research interests are in gut microbiota, antimicrobial peptides, bacteriocins, probiotics, and anti-infectives. Paul has won many awards and was conferred in March 2009 with a D.Sc. based on published works. He was elected a member of The Royal Irish Academy (RIA) in May 2010 and a Fellow of the American Academy for Microbiology (AAM) in 2014.

Dr Fiona Walsh is a lecturer and research group leader in the Department of Biology at Maynooth University. Her research focuses on understanding antibiotic resistance in the different compartments and bacterial populations that they survive. Antibiotic resistance is found in all places in the world where humans and animals live. Dr Walsh is interested in studying how antibiotic resistant genes or bacteria survive in the different places, such as soil or an animal gut or a human pathogen and how they move from one place to another. In order to understand the resistance genes or bacteria Dr Walsh has developed an interest in studying the communities of bacteria (microbiomes) that live in these places. As part of this research she collaborates with other researchers from the EU and globally. Two current EU projects involve research into these problems in the animal gut and in the effluent leaving wastewater treatment plants.

Steve Aiken OBE MLA was born in County Antrim and worked for the UK government, latterly in Whitehall in the world of public policy before becoming the founding CEO of the British Irish Chamber of Commerce.  Over a period of three years, he grew the Chamber from 5 to over 250 members and promoted the business community widely, encouraging growth in the €1 billion per week worth of trade across these islands.  He later joined the Educational Trust of Dublin City University as Chief Executive Officer and laid the groundwork for the launch in 2014 of the University’s largest fundraising campaign. 
     Seeking a new challenge Steve transitioned into politics and in May 2016 was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly as the South Antrim representative for the Ulster Unionist Party.  Thus far he has been central to the party’s decision to form the first official opposition since 1972, serves as Deputy Chairperson for the Economy Committee and is a Vice Chair of the All Party Group on Science and Technology.  He is the official Opposition Spokesperson on the Economy.



 

A lifelong resident of East Belfast, Naomi grew up just off Mersey Street, was educated at Mersey Street Primary and Bloomfield Collegiate, before going on to study civil engineering at Queen's University. Following graduation, Naomi worked for almost 10 years in the engineering industry here.

Naomi has been politically active since her early twenties and she first joined Belfast City Council as an Alliance Party councillor for the Victoria Ward in 2001. Naomi was subsequently elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly as MLA for East Belfast in 2003. She also had the honour of serving as Lord Mayor of Belfast from 2009 to 2010.
Deputy leader of her party, in May 2010 Naomi was elected as Member of Parliament for Belfast East and became the first Alliance MP to sit in Westminster. 
There, she was a member of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee and the Speaker's Committee for the Electoral Commission.
In 2011 she was named 'Politician of the Year' by the Slugger O'Toole political blog. 
In May 2016, Naomi returned to the Northern Ireland Assembly as MLA for Belfast East. She currently sits on the Committee for Communities and is the Chair for the All Party Group on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.