biomedical sciences research institute - Research - University of Ulster

3. BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH INSTITUTE (BMSRI)Selected Achievements 2007/083rd Professor becomes Member of the Royal Irish AcademyProfessor Helene McNulty (pictured left) became the third member of BMSRIstaff to be elected as a Member of the Royal Irish Academy. Helene joinedher colleagues, Professor Peter Flatt and Professor Sean Strain, as a memberof Ireland’s most distinguished learned society.Nicholas Canny, President of the Royal Irish Academy (centre) welcoming Professor Helene McNulty and ProfessorRobert Welch to membership of the Royal Irish AcademyNobel Prize-Winning Scientist Joins the BMSRINobel Prize-winning scientist Professor Bert Sakmann (pictured right), whose ground-breaking work is admired by theworld’s neuroscience community, was appointed to a staff position within the BMSRIin December 2007. Professor Sakmann is one of the world’s most distinguishedbiomedical scientists, having been awarded the 1991 Nobel Prize for Physiology (withresearch partner Erwin Neher) for their discoveries concerning the function of singleion channels in cells.In October 2008, he delivered a special public lecture (entitled: “Decision-making:anatomy and physiology in the cerebral cortex”), to mark his tenure as Professor ofBiomedical Sciences at Ulster.The Vice Chancellor, Professor Richard Barnett, told theaudience that: “the decision by this most distinguished Nobel Prizewinningscientist to join us consolidates our international reputation for excellence in biomedical science.”News ReleaseProfessor Sakmann is currently involved in a research project on the nature of nerve cells, which is being jointlyconducted by the BMSRI and the prestigious Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology in Munich. He is collaboratingclosely with Dr Kurt Saetzler, his former PhD student and postdoctoral research fellow, who has been Lecturer inComputational Biology at Ulster since 2003.Awards for Ground-Breaking Ulster ScientistsProfessor Peter Flatt and Dr Victor Gault (pictured left) won prestigious awardsin recognition of their cutting-edge research into diabetes. Their Awards werepresented at the Diabetes UK Annual Professional Conference in Glasgow.Dr Gault received the Young Investigator Award for outstanding contributionto diabetes research. This highly competitive award, in recognition of youngscientists’ efforts and innovations aimed at improving understanding of diabetes,is supported by Cambridge University NHS Foundation Trust and is given inmemory of the highly renowned diabetes researcher Professor Charles Nicholas Hales.Professor Flatt was recipient of the Dorothy Hodgkin Lecture Award in recognition of his international contributionto research in the field of diabetes. This is one of Diabetes UK’s highest honours in memory of the late DorothyCrowfoot Hodgkin OM FRS (1910–1994), a Nobel Prize winner, who was described as one of the most outstandingscientists – and personalities – of the 20th century.11