Dr. Eric Moore
Vice-Dean for Graduate Affairs

Eric Moore is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Chemistry and heads a research group at University College Cork focused on chemical and bio-sensing and separation. He is an Academic member within the Life Science Interface group at Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork. Since 2010 he has led an active research team with very strong industry engagement, which is a critical part of his research strategy. He has extensive linkages with the pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, biomedical device, environment, and food/beverage sectors. He has championed postgraduate education, especially at the MSc level and is dedicated to providing high calibre industry ready graduates.

Prof. Alan Kelly
Vice-Dean for External Engagement

Professor Alan Kelly is the Vice-Dean for External Engagement, with strategic responsibility for interactions with society, industry, alumni,  the media and other external stakeholders to the research and educational mission of SEFS.

Alan, a native of Dublin with degrees from Dublin City University (Biotechnology) and UCC (Food Technology), is a Professor in the School of Food and Nutritional Sciences.  He lectures in the areas of food processing and preservation, dairy product technology and new food product development, and leads an active research group on the chemistry and processing of milk and dairy products, studying topics from novel processing methods for dairy products (to the biochemistry of human milk.

Alan collaborates extensively nationally and internationally in his research, including significant links with industry, and has published over 300 research papers, review articles and book chapters, along with several books aimed at both scientific and non-specialist audiences, and regularly engages with the public through events and the media.  He has won UCC awards for Excellence in Teaching (2004), Leadership (2011) and Research Communication (2020).

From 2006-2013, Alan was Dean of Graduate Studies of UCC, and from 2015-2016 he was Interim Director of Quality, and he has consistently been involved in roles of responsibility and academic leadership throughout his career.  He is also currently Vice-Head of the College of SEFS.

Dr. Ger McGlacken
Vice-Dean for Research and Innovation

Ger carried out his PhD at NUI Galway, and first postdoctoral stint at the University of York, UK. He was then awarded a Molecular Design and Synthesis Postdoctoral Fellowship to work with Taxol-pioneer Prof Robert Holton at Florida State University, US. He has been in a permanent position at UCC since 2011. He is currently the Vice-Dean of Research and Innovation at the College of SEFS, a Senior Lecturer in Organic Chemistry, and PI at the Analytical and Biological Chemistry Research Facility (ABCRF).

His core research involves Green and Sustainable Chemical Synthesis, usually by designing new catalytic routes to important small molecules. He leads a group of 12 PhD students and 1 postdoctoral researcher. He collaborates across a number of disciplines including microbiology, anatomy, and analytical, materials and computational chemistry. He works closely with, and has been funded by, some of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Since joining UCC, Ger has published about 80 high-ranking peer-reviewed papers and patents, and has given invited lectures at numerous international conferences. He has been awarded a number of Science Foundation Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, and international grant awards as PI.

In 2016, he was part of a team which won the UCC/Purdy Lucey Invention of the Year (Life Science), and in 2020 he was awarded the UCC President’s Prize for Excellence in Teaching.

Dr. Alan Morrison
Vice-Dean for Undergraduate Affairs

As Vice Dean for Undergraduate Affairs, Alan has responsibility and oversight for the strategic development of undergraduate teaching and learning activities within the College. He is also responsible for all aspects of undergraduate affairs including the undergraduate student experience along with overseeing undergraduate student recruitment, retention and progression.

Alan graduated with first class honours in Electrical Engineering from UCC in 1992. He completed his PhD at the National Microelectronics Research Centre (NMRC) in Cork and Philips Research Laboratories in Eindhoven, graduating in 1997 with a thesis in the field of semiconductor lasers. He worked from 1996-1998 as a Research Scientist at the NMRC where he had responsibility for silicon photonics, particularly the development of single photon detectors and photovoltaic devices. He joined UCC as an academic in 1998, was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2006, serving two terms as Dean of Engineering from 2012-2018.

Alan's research interests include single photon detection, optical detectors, light emitting diodes, photovoltaics, circuit design and the application of optoelectronic technologies. He is currently an SFI co-PI with Prof Marcel Jansen (School of BEES), where he is responsible for developing intelligent lighting incorporating ultraviolet (UV) LED sources to investigate the influence of various UV wavelengths on plant response and development. This work can potentially open up opportunities for improved crop production in indoor environments, thereby tackling global issues of food security and reducing CO2 emissions. Over the last two decades he has won several PI awards from Enterprise Ireland and SFI. He has published extensively in top-tier Engineering journals and conference proceedings and enjoys collaborative and multidisciplinary research. He is particularly interested in developing engineering solutions that enable research in other disciplines.

Alan's teaching interests align with his research and he is an advocate of hands-on learning, particularly through collaborative project work at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. He lectures to all years at undergraduate level and supervises project students across five different engineering programmes, along with coordinating the capstone project module for the BE in Electrical & Electronic Engineering. He was runner-up in the Student nominated SEFS Lecturer of the Year in 2015 and was awarded the President's Prize for Excellence in Teaching in 2019.

He is currently a member of the Accreditation Board of Engineers Ireland, a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and a Chartered Physicist with the Institute of Physics.