Professor Séamus Davis, Oliver E. Buckley Prize, UCC event

22 Mar 2023

On 22/03/2023, an event was held in UCC to celebrate the work of Professor Séamus Davis (Quantum Physics) who is the first irish winner of the prestigious Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Physics Prize.

Tours of Professor Davis' Quantum lab in the School of Physics, Kane Science Building, UCC took place yesterday and a reception was held for all attendees to celebrate the work of Séamus and his team. Prior to this local event Profesor Davis was presented with the award at a ceremony in Las Vegas at the annual conference of the American Physical Society. Professor Davis is the first Irish recipient of the award, and UCC is the first Irish institution to host a winner of the award.

The award was presented in recognition of Professor Davis' development of quantum microscopes that allow direct atomic scale imaging of quantum matter existing within advanced materials. Speaking on the award, Professor Davis said:

“This work has spanned 25 years and there have been hundreds of contributors in that time – too many to thank individually. I would, however, like to thank all those who have supported our quantum microscope concept, since it started at UC Berkeley in the 1990’s, matured at Cornell University in the 2000’s and has now become operational at UCC.”

Joined by many guests including the Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Deirdre Forde, Seamus' Quantum group, College of Science Engineering & Food Science colleagues, School of Physics and other UCC colleagues as well as some external contacts, a wonderful celebration was had to recognise Séamus and his team for their ground breaking research in Quantum Physics. 

The event included speeches from Professor John O'Halloran, President of UCC, Professor Sarah Culloty, Head of College of Science Engineering and Food Science, Professor John McInerney, Head of Physics and from Professor Séamus Davis himself which included a presentation on his esteemed work. 

We would like to congratulate Professor Davis and his research teams, here in Ireland, the UK and Cornell for their continued success and contribution.  

Photo credit: Tomas Tyner, UCC 
1. First photo: From left to right: Professor Sarah Culloty, Professor John O'Halloran, Cllr. Deirdre Forde, Professor Séamus Davis, Professor John McInerney
2. Second photo: Professor Séamus Davis and some of his research group 
3. Third photo: Professor Séamus Davis 
4. Fourth photo: Professor Séamus Davis, his Quantum team and UCC Associates