Welcome from Head of College

26 Sep 2023

Dear SEFS Colleagues, 

I hope you all had the chance to enjoy a restful break over the summer and are looking forward to the coming semester. As we start a new academic year, I wanted to take a moment to express my appreciation for all of your hard work and dedication in creating a vibrant and supportive learning and research environment for our students and our staff.

I would also like to welcome our first-year students who are beginning their student journey at UCC. I hope they will enjoy their time with us and make lots of new friendships along the way as well as availing of the supportive and enabling academic environment that you all provide for them. I know that you will help them settle into university life and ensure they have the best experience possible. I believe that a university education can be transformational and ensuring that the environment we provide for our students, to enable them to achieve their academic and life goals while in SEFS, is of paramount importance to me.

The last year was very successful for SEFS – we obtained capital funding to support the Kane redevelopment, we underwent an ambitious recruitment drive under the UCC Futures programme with over 50 positions being advertised, and a number of our colleagues and students were recognised internationally. There are many more significant achievements of our community captured on the News section of the SEFS website and I look forward to hearing of and celebrating many more achievements into the new year.

Welcome also to our new colleagues who have chosen to embark on the next chapter of their careers here at the College of SEFS. We are looking forward to meeting you throughout the year. I would also like to acknowledge our former staff who have either recently retired or moved to a new role. They have made an important contribution to the College over the years, and I wish them well in their future endeavours. I want to specifically thank two Heads of School who have recently stepped down from that role – Prof. John McInerney, School of Physics, and Prof. Mairead Kiely, School of Food and Nutritional Sciences, who made such a positive contribution to their schools and to the College – I have very much appreciated their collegiality, engagement, and advocacy on behalf of their schools and the College. I would also like to congratulate Prof. Kevin McCartney, Director of Cork Centre for Architectural Education on his retirement and thank him for his contribution to the College. Many thanks to Prof Paul Callanan, Prof Alan Kelly and Dr Jason O Shaughnessy who have taken over the leadership of these academic areas.

I would also like to thank our UCC Future leads: Prof. Brian O’Gallachoir who has taken up the role of the Director of the Environmental Research Institute & Associate Vice President for Sustainability - Sustainability, Prof. Anita Maguire - Pharmaceuticals, Prof. Alix McCollam – Quantum and Photonics, Prof. Barry O’Sullivan - AI and Data Analytics, Prof. Alan Kelly and Prof. Paul Ross – Food, Microbiome and Health.

Wishing you all the best as we embark on another successful year for STEM at UCC.

Regards,
Professor Sarah Culloty