David McNulty, Postdoctoral Researcher, Applied Nanoscience Group, Department of Chemistry: “Attending the Lindau meeting will be a life changing experience for me.”
Dr David McNulty, a postdoctoral researcher at UCC, is one of just three people from Ireland selected to participate in the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Lindau in June.
Dr McNulty, a Postdoctoral Researcher in Dr Colm O’Dwyer’s Applied Nanoscience Group in UCC’s Department of Chemistry, described being one of only 400 young scientists from 76 countries invited to the meeting, this year focused on chemistry, as “a great honour.”
“Attending the Lindau meeting will be a life-changing experience for me, as it will give me an invaluable chance to meet some of the elite scientists in the world, share experiences with them, listen to their advice and essentially allow me to stand on the shoulders of giants.”
Dr McNulty’s research is focused on metal oxide and semiconductor nanostructures as electrode materials for next generation Li-ion batteries.
The scientists selected – all outstanding undergraduate students, graduate students and post-docs under the age of 35 conducting research in the field of chemistry – will meet with Nobel Laureates at Lake Constance from June 25 to 30.
More than 30 Nobel laureates have already confirmed their participation, including Bernard Feringa and Jean-Pierre Sauvage, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2016. Key topics to be discussed include Big Data, climate change and the role of science in a “post-truth” era.
Dr McNulty and the other scientists have successfully passed a multi-stage international selection process, and will come from countries including the US, Japan, Israel, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Benin, with a 45-55 female-male ratio.
“For the field of chemistry, that is a substantial number”, according to Wolfgang Lubitz, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion, Vice-President of the Council for the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings and scientific co-chairperson of this year’s meeting.
“The quality of applicants was again extremely high”, said Burkhard Fricke, professor emeritus for theoretical physics and coordinator of the selection process. “Some of the young scientists who applied had very impressive CVs. It is highly unfortunate that we can only invite 400 of them.”
“The Nobel prizes are the most prestigious prize in the intellectual realm. The findings of previous Nobel Laureates not only represent the most significant advances made within the scientific community, they have also had an immeasurable impact on the day-to-day lives of people worldwide,” Dr McNulty added.
