MCCI NEWS

DR. IVAN O’CONNELL WINS US-IRELAND FUNDING AWARD

 

Congratulations to Dr Ivan O’Connell,  Head of Precision Circuits who has won a funding award in the US-Ireland R&D Partnership Programme.

Ivan is the lead applicant on a project entitled “Enabling next generation integrated optoelectronics with free-form metamaterials based on graphene”. The project will enable next-generation optical communications, extending the reach and capability of existing fibre optical communication networks. In particular, the team will develop optical components which are compact, energy-efficient, silicon-compatible, and reconfigurable, for use in communication and sensing applications. The researchers will also explore the integration of 2-D materials with nanophotonic structures designed through the recently proposed free-form metamaterials concept.

The total value of the award is €442,860, and the co-applicants are Dr Hamza Shakeel (Queen’s University Belfast) and Prof Berardi Sensale-Rodriguez (University of Utah).

Prof Mark Ferguson, Director General of Science Foundation Ireland  and Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government of Ireland, welcomed the announcement: “I would like to congratulate all of the award recipients and their collaborators, who are forging innovation and discovery across the Atlantic, with the potential to greatly benefit our collective societies and economies. The continued success of the US-Ireland R&D Partnership Programme demonstrates the strong open relationship between our countries and highlights Ireland’s scientific standing internationally.”

Partner agencies in the funding scheme include Science Foundation Ireland, the Department for the Economy in Northern Ireland, and the National Science Foundation in the United States.

To view press release from Science Foundation Ireland Click Here