2005 Press Releases

20 May 2005

UCC appoints Director of the Environmental Research Institute (ERI)



Dr Alan Dobson, Department of Microbiology, UCC, has been appointed Director of the Environmental Research Institute at UCC. The ERI is composed of four research centres: the Aquaculture & Fisheries Development Centre (AFDC),  the Aquatic Services Unit (ASU), the Coastal & Marine Research Centre (CMRC) and the Cleaner Protection Promotion Unit (CPPU) plus a range of focus areas covering 10 academic departments over three Faculties. Currently, within the ERI there are over 200 research projects funded through national and international sources. This large volume of expertise and research activity provides fertile ground for high-quality, multi-disciplinary environmental research.

Dr Dobson received both his BSc and PhD in Biochemistry at NUIG, before carrying out Post Doctoral Research at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston Texas. He returned to UCC in 1988 to work in the Microbiology Department.  

Dr Dobson's research interests are primarily in the area of Environmental Biotechnology, particularly focusing on the physiology and genetics of bacteria and fungi that can degrade toxic environmental pollutants, on the microbiology of nutrient removal for waste streams and more recently in environmental systems microbiology.  To date, he has published over 65 research papers in the biotechnology area.

In 1999 Dr Dobson was awarded the Royal Irish Academy Medal in Microbiology and has recently been elected as a Fellow of the Institute of Biology.   He has served on many national and international scientific committees and is currently a member of the European Space Agency, Life and Physical Science Advisory Committee (LPSAC).

Dr Dobson will be responsible for pulling together the various strands of UCC's research under the umbrella of the ERI.  With a critical mass of researchers and a flagship Institute, UCC now has a huge opportunity to consolidate its leadership position in Environmental Research.

074MMcS


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