Science Foundation Ireland 2021 Science Awards recognises Insight’s Barry O’Sullivan for International Engagement

Science Foundation Ireland today announced the winners of the prestigious 2021 Science Foundation Ireland Awards which recognise key leaders in Irish research at its annual Science Summit.

Professor Barry O’Sullivan of Insight@UCC has received the SFI Best International Engagement Award 2021.

Barry O’Sullivan is a full professor at the School of Computer Science & IT at University College Cork. He is the founding director of the Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics at UCC, director of the SFI Centre for Research Training in AI, and principal investigator at the Confirm SFI Research Centre for Smart Manufacturing. He is a previous recipient of the SFI Researcher of the Year Award (2016).

Professor O’Sullivan works in the fields of artificial intelligence, constraint programming, prescriptive analytics (operations research), ethics, and public policy. He frequently contributes to global Track II diplomacy efforts related to AI. He is a co-founder of Stimul.ai.

Professor O’Sullivan served as Vice Chair of the European Commission High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence from 2018-2020. The HLEG-AI defined Europe’s approach to Trustworthy AI. Professor O’Sullivan is a Fellow and a past President of the European AI Association, and a current member of the Executive Council of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. He chairs the Advisory Board of the GRACE project at Europol, and advises the Leuven.ai institute at KULeuven (Belgium) and the Computational Sustainability Network (USA).

In 2019 Professor O’Sullivan was appointed by Ireland’s Minister for Health to the Health Research Consent Declaration Committee. In 2020 he was appointed Chair of the Oversight Board of Health Data Research UK (North), led by the University of Liverpool. In 2021 he was appointed by the Minister for Health as Chair of the National Research Ethics Committee for Medical Devices.

In advance of Science Week, the Summit with the theme Creating Our Future takes place virtually for the second year running allowing members of Ireland’s research community to come together online to discuss challenges and celebrate the significant contributions made over the past year.

SFI Researcher of the Year 2021 went to Professor William Gallagher, University College Dublin & Conway Fellow, UCD Conway Institute, for his work in the area of cancer research.  Professor Gallagher is a Full Professor of Cancer Biology at University College Dublin (UCD) and Deputy Director of Precision Oncology Ireland, a large-scale SFI Strategic Research initiative. Prof. Gallagher is a primary driving force behind the All-Island Cancer Research Institute (AICRI), which is creating an overarching framework for cancer research across the entire island of Ireland (@AICRIproject).

SFI Early Career Researcher of the Year was awarded to Dr Dara Stanley, University College Dublin for her work researching the effects of pesticides on pollinators. Dr  Stanley is an Assistant Professor in Applied Entomology in the School of Agriculture and Food Science at UCD.  Her work has been published in Nature, PNAS, Nature Communications and Current Biology, and she has received early career researcher awards from both the Royal Entomological Society and the British Ecological Society.

SFI Industry Partnership Award 2021  went to Professor Garry Duffy, NUI Galway in partnership with Boston Scientific and the SFI Commercialisation Award 2021  went to Dr Elaine Spain and Dr Kellie Adamson, Novus Diagnostics Ltd.

Professor Helen Roche, Director UCD Conway Institute, Full Professor of Nutrition / Nutrigenomics, UCD Conway Institute & UCD Institute of Food & Health, University College Dublin received the 2021 SFI Mentorship Award.