09 November, 2020

Cork Institute of Technology has won the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Research Image of the year award for 2020.

The research image competition celebrates images captured by Science Foundation Ireland funded researchers during the course of their research. The winners of the prestigious SFI Awards were announced on Thursday, November 5th at the annual SFI Science Summit. 

Talking Heads: The award winning image was captured by CAPPA Researchers Dr Krishnakumar Chullipalliyalil & Dr Steven Darby and Danielle Wilcox from Blackrock Castle Observatory during their work on the MASK Project.

The winning image,entitled “Talking Heads” was taken as part of CIT's SFI funded project MASK - Making Aerosol Safety Known, which aims to quantitatively determine how well commonly available face-mask materials suppress the transmission of exhaled droplets.

The MASK project features a multidisciplinary team from a variety of CIT's research departments including the Centre for Advanced Photonics and Process Analysis (CAPPA), Blackrock Castle Observatory (BCO), BioExplore Research Centre and the MeSSO research group. 

Dr Niall Smith, Head of Research in CIT said, “It's a lovely example of multidisciplinary research and the value of using fundamental knowledge in a highly applied setting. I'm absolutely thrilled at the result. Credit to Dr Steven Darby (CAPPA Research Centre), Dr Krishnakumar Chullipalliyalil (CAPPA Research Centre) and Danielle Wilcox (CIT Blackrock Castle Observatory) for working together to achieve this outcome. The project is truly multidisciplinary, involving astrophysicists, physicists, optical engineers, designers and biological scientists. It has an aggressive timeline, which should quickly add to the current body of knowledge regarding mask efficacy”.

Michael Loftus, Vice President for External Affairs in CIT, said, “We are immensely proud of this recognition achieved by the CIT research community. As CIT moves forward with IT Tralee to develop the Munster Technological University (MTU), our work in research and innovation will increasingly capture the attention of our stakeholders as it addresses challenges at fundamental and applied levels".

"This will create major opportunities for our students and graduates, as well as for our industry, HEI and community collaborators, for many years to come. The value of science is increasingly important at a time when its value is being challenged from many quarters. MTU will continuously value and communicate the value of science to all with whom we engage,” he added.

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