16pj5TM

17
Distinguished
Research Fellowship
Awards 2014-15
Dr Frank Ferguson
Coleraine/Magee –
Thursday 18 December 2014, 11.00am
Dr Frank Ferguson is internationally recognised
as the world’s leading scholar in his specialist
area of Ulster-Scots Literature and is currently
a key member of the Arts and Humanities
Research Institute where he is the Unit
Coordinator for English and directs the
Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies.
Dr Ferguson’s substantial output is of
extremely high quality consisting of five
edited volumes and seven chapters in books,
all with major international publishing houses.
He has explored new media as a vehicle for
dissemination of research findings, producing
several touring exhibitions and leading a
number of significant digitisation projects. His
Ulster-Scots Writing, An Anthology (Four Courts
2008) is the world’s key point of reference in its
field and his contributions to the Oxford History
of the Irish Book are recognised internationally.
Dr Ferguson’s research impact goes beyond
academia and is evidenced by contributions
to public policy through appointments to key
advisory roles such as those on the Ministerial
Advisory Group on Ulster-Scots (MAGUS) and by
demand from leading broadcasters such as the
BBC for his expertise. His ground-breaking work
on the Ulster Poetry Project, focused on
making findings of his research accessible
to school children and the wider public,
was returned as a key Impact Case Study
in the English submission to REF2014.
Dr Emeir McSorley
Coleraine/Magee –
Thursday 18 December 2014, 11.00am
Since joining the University in 2005, Dr McSorley
has positively contributed to research focused
on nutrition and immunology. She is a core
member of both the Biomedical Sciences
Research Institute (BMSRI) and the Northern
Ireland Centre for Food and Health (NICHE).
Dr McSorley currently has leading roles in the
research subgroups ‘Nutritional Immunology in
Health and Disease’ and ‘Nutrition, toxicology
and child development’ where studies on
Seychellois mother-child cohorts focus on
maternal fish intake and children’s optimal
neurological development, have been cited
widely. This research has resulted in new public
health recommendations about the benefits of
fish, to advisories on fish consumption during
pregnancy, in the US and Australia.
Dr McSorley is currently the principal
investigator at Ulster for the all-Ireland
consortium ‘NutraMara’ a research programme
funded by MI/FIRM investigating marine
functional foods/bioactivity, the results of
which will form the basis of a pre-proof of
concept application. Within NutraMara, she is a
work-package leader, a member of the Board of
Managers, the Scientific Council Committee and
the Dissemination Committee. These positions
of leadership have enabled Dr McSorley to
champion Ulster’s research capabilities, gain
access to cutting-edge technologies and
initiate areas of collaborative research.