Jinju James
Jinju James received her Ph.D. in 2018. After doing a short postdoc with Prof. Pat Guiry on a collaborative medicinal chemistry project, she joined the research and development group in SK Biotek working on a lab to plant scale up process. Jinju starts her industrial post doc position at the Eli Lilly headquarters, Indianapolis in August 2019.
Cian Kingston
Cian received his Ph.D. in 2017. He has worked as a post Doc in The Scripps Research Institute, California under Prof. Phil Baran currently focused on the development and mechanistic investigation of practical synthetic methods.
Catherine Tighe
After finishing her PhD in 2016, Catherine joined the Sussex Drug Discovery Centre at the University of Sussex as a research fellow in medicinal chemistry. There, she worked as part of a team on an oncology project. In June 2018, Catherine moved to the Institute of Cancer Research in London as a postdoctoral training fellow in medicinal chemistry.
Mark Jackson
After leaving UCD in 2016, Mark took a position in APC ltd. in Cherrywood as a research scientist for 2 years. He played an active role in a number of projects based upon the development of crystallisation processes, reactor and process design for scale up, filtration optimisation studies, and HPAPI process development to name but a few. For the last year Mark have been an R&D scientist for SK Biotek in Swords.
Steven O Reilly
Steven was awarded his PhD in 2014. He began working as a Process Chemist in Pfizer, Ringaskiddy in Cork on their 2-year graduate programme. The role itself was specific to the introduction of new products from the Pfizer pipeline via global R&D and scaling them up for commercial manufacture. After 18 months, Steven took on the role of ‘Technologist’ which is a combination of what the chemical engineer would traditionally do in terms of process set up and the process operator.
Robert Doran
Following completion of his PhD in 2014, Robert moved to London to complete a Post-Doctoral Fellowship with Dr James A. Bull at Imperial College working on the synthesis of oxetanes and the new methods for the preparation of sulfoximines. Following a successful time there Robert had a brief stint in Pfizer Ringaskiddy in Cork in 2017 where he worked as a Value Stream Chemist in the New Products Group. He then moved back to Dublin to his current position as a Process Development Chemist at Takeda in Grange Castle.
Claire Wilson
On completing her PhD in 2014, Claire moved to Newcastle University to take up a position as a Teaching Fellow. In Newcastle, Claire also worked as a Research Associate in the Northern Institute for Cancer Research, researching novel inhibitors of DNA-protein kinase. Claire became a Post-Doctoral Researcher in the group of Prof. Varinder Aggarwal in the University of Bristol in 2015, working on the enantiospecific sp2–sp3 coupling of boronic esters with electron rich aromatics. Claire then moved to the University of Bath as a Teaching Fellow, where she also conducted a short period of independent research. In 2017 Claire moved away from academia, taking a position in Bio-Techne (Tocris) as a Senior Scientist. In the same year Claire was promoted to Team Leader, a position that she currently holds. Claire currently manages a team of eight Chemists and Purification Specialists in this role.
Eibhlin Butler
After finishing her PhD in 2013, Eibhlin moved to the University Manchester to take up a post as a postdoctoral researcher for Prof Jim Thomas. She returned to Ireland in Feb 2016 and spent a year at MSD in Ballydine, working on new product introductions and in manufacturing support. Eibhlin subsequently moved to Pfizer Little Island in Jan 2017 where she has been involved in the technical transfer of a number of small-scale high containment processes to the site.’
Caoimhe Hansen
Caoimhe finished her PhD in 2013 and started work as a process engineer in Intel in Kildare where she worked in Wet etching. In Jan 2014 Caoimhe took up a position as a process chemist in Eli Lilly in Cork. The position involves supporting manufacturing and the scale up, technical transfer and validation of new processes to site. This also involves working as part of team to design the safe operating and monitoring of these processes.
Dennis McCartney
After leaving UCD in 2013, Dennis started in Pfizer, Ringaskiddy as a Process Chemist, working on transfer of APIs from development to commercialisation. Dennis then moved to Leo Pharma, Crumlin as a MSAT Senior Professional, where he was responsible for technical support for a range of formulations. He is now an MSAT Principle Professional in Leo Pharma, and is responsible for overseeing the technical support for all products manufactured on the Dublin site, and acting as SME on a number of global and local projects.
Gavin Haberlin
Gavin completed his PhD in 2011 and has worked in Henkel on various projects for the past 8 years. His role as Senior Product Development Chemist in Adhesive Technologies focuses on the development of novel innovations to meet current market trends. He worked on a variety of different projects, including specialty grades for the plumbing, automotive, food and nuclear industries. He works closely with our colleagues in: Manufacturing, Quality Control, Product Safety, Technical Support and in Sales.
Declan Cusack
Declan completed his PhD in 2008, He has worked in MSD Tipperary as a Research Chemist. He has worked in Pfizer PDC IN Cork for the past 5 years.
Grainne Hargaden
After finishing her PhD in 2007, Grainne spent 3 years as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Oxford working in the area of total synthesis. While there, she also worked as a tutor at Magdalen College. Grainne returned to a lecturing position at TU Dublin (formerly DIT) and is carrying out research in organic synthesis for application in both medicinal chemistry and materials science.
Aoife Maxwell
Since completing her PhD in December 2006, Aoife has been employed at GlaxoSmithKline in Stevenage, UK. She began her career in Medicinal Chemistry research, as a Senior Scientist in GSK’s Lead Identification department. She progressed to Principal Scientist working in the Respiratory Lead Optimisation department and in the Refractory Respiratory Inflammation Research Unit. In 2014 Aoife took the opportunity for a change in career direction and became a Clinical Development Manager, running Phase II-IV Respiratory clinical trials for GSK. In 2018 she moved to the Real Word Evidence & Epidemiology department at GSK to take up a position as a Real-World Clinical Development Manager; leading studies to drive increased use of real-world data to inform the development of medicines.
Brian Sweetman
Brian received his PhD in 2005. He started with GSK Cork as a development Chemist in 2006. After 2 years in Cork, Brian completed an MPharm at the SIPBS institute in Glasgow in 2011 and then returned to Ireland registering with the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland in 2012. Brian worked in community pharmacy for a short period before returning to industry as a Manufacturing Technology Chemist with BMS and then a Manufacturing Development Executive at LEO Pharma in 2014. He has worked at LEO since and is currently Senior Manager responsible for leading the Global Manufacturing Science & Technology and the Finished Goods Manufacturing Ireland team.
Jerome Fakhry (Postdoc)
Jerome did a postdoc with the group in 2005. He then worked in Helsinn chemicals in Dublin then Schering Plough in Wicklow before moving to Melbourne, Australia in 2009. There Jerome spent over 7 years working at the EPA on industrial waste management (program management, policy and regulations). He is now working in Phnom Penh, Cambodia supporting the government with solid waste and wastewater management projects and policies.
Alan Hennessy
Alan completed his PhD in 1999. He then did postdoctoral studies from 2000-2001 at Imperial College London with Prof Tony Barrett. Alan joined GlaxoSmithKline in 2002 and worked at their Harlow and Stevenage UK research sites. There he held a variety of chemistry roles over the next 10 years mostly in novel anti-bacterial research. Alan then turned to agrochemical research in 2011 and joined Syngenta at Jealott’s Hill, UK. Since then he has led a variety of early stage research projects and managed external collaborations. 24 papers and 34 patents to date.
Mary McCarthy
Mary finished her PhD in spring of 1999. She held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Amsterdam (1999-2000) with Prof Piet van Leeuwen and had a Max Planck Fellowship at the Mac Planck Institute für Kohlenforschung, Germany / RWTH Aachen, Germany (2001-2002) with Prof Walter Leitner.
Mary then took a job in the chemical industry at SABIC (2002). She spent 15 years at SABIC in various roles in catalysis, polymer product development, R&D, talent acquisition, change management and corporate venture capital. In 2017 she moved to the Brightlands Maastricht Health Campus where she was responsible for the development of the technologies coming from the Science and Engineering faculty of Maastricht University and the Aachen-Maastricht Institute for Biobased Materials.
In March 2019 Mary became CEO of Boostani, which is a start-up in the south of the Netherlands who work towards closing the loop to a circular economy. In June 2019, she also become an investment manager at Brightlands Venture Partners, a Venture Capital group managing 75M€ investing in materials, smart services, health and agri-food.
Yvonne Fahy
After completing her PhD in 1998, Yvonne began working in MSD in Co. Tipperary in the Technical Operations Department. This job involved laboratory investigations into product development and the support of the manufacturing of various pharmaceutical products. After working in Technical Operations, she began working in the Quality Assurance Area. In 2006 Yvonne left MSD to begin a Higher Diploma in Arts in Primary Education with Hibernia College and qualified as a Primary Teacher in 2007 and began working in an all-boys Primary School in Co. Tipperary where she has spent the last 12 years. In this role she has a great interest in promoting Science within the school. In both 2011 and 2012 her class won the National Finals of The Xperience Engineering Competition.