A project involving the real-time measurement of levels and identity of important allergens such as fungal spores and pollen in Ireland won the top prize at the recent Environmental Research Open Day in UCC.  The prize for best oral presentation was won by David O’Connor (Dept of Chemistry/ERI) for his presentation on “Real-Time spectroscopic measurements of Primary Biological Aerosol Particles in field and laboratory environments.”  This project is linked to the development of an instrument to measure primary biological aerosol particles such as pollen in real-time which is a capability not currently available in Ireland.  A prize of €100 was presented by the competition judge Prof William Reville from the Department of Biochemistry, UCC. The 2nd Environmental Research Open Day (organised by the Environmental Research Institute) took place in UCC on Dec 15th, 2010. The presentations at the conference showcased environmental, energy and marine research based activities from eight Departments, Schools and Centres within UCC across the themes of (i) Environment and Health and (ii) Energy, Clean Technology and Climate Change.  The Research Open Day was opened by Professor Pat Fitzpatrick (Head of College of Science, Engineering and Food Science, UCC) who stated that “addressing the problems of climate change and resource shortages along with stemming biodiversity loss and environmental degradation are now fundamental challenges to humanity and that good quality environmental research, development and demonstration is now needed more urgently than ever in areas such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, clean technology, waste treatment and recovery and resource management and protection.” The presentations at the Research Open Day were drawn from a diverse range of research areas and included topics such as real-time measurement of biological aerosols, toxicology of marine biotoxins, environmental information and the financial markets, honey bee defence behaviour against disease, local adaptation in Atlantic salmon, cars in the future, ocean wave energy, the use of visualisation for influencing perceptions of climate change, and biodegradable plastic production. The presentations can be viewed at the link below:

http://www.ucc.ie/en/eri/ericonferences/

The actual winning presentation given by David O'Connor can also be viewed on YouTube as follows:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOm0h6Cc0J0

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