The CLASS Acts podcast is an initiative of UCD Conway Institute, a research institute based in University College Dublin. 

In epsiode 1 of CLASS Acts, Dr. Eoin Cummins talks with Professor Cormac Taylor, Professor of Cellular Physiology in the UCD School of Medicine who is a Conway Fellow. 

Cormac recounts his early career in science and post-doctoral years in Harvard Medical School before returning to Ireland to pursue research in the area of hypoxia and inflammation. Cormac shares his experiences as a mentor and a mentee and discusses the role of scientists in the age of ‘fake news’. Cormac also shares his musical talents with an original composition inspired by the COVID-19 lockdown.

CLASS Acts

The podcast series will introduce you to scientists at the heart of fascinating new research at the Institute. 

What motivated our researchers to pursue a career in science? What journeys have they taken along their career path? What areas of research are they pursuing? How have their careers been influenced by mentorship along the way?

Some of these scientists have long-established research groups in the Institute while others have just beginning to build their own team. All of them have spoken about their work in our weekly Conway Lecture & Seminar Series; or CLASS for short.

Our host is Dr Eoin Cummins; Assistant Professor in Physiology in the UCD School of Medicine and a Conway Fellow. Eoin leads a research group studying how carbon dioxide and oxygen affect cellular behaviour.
 
Eoin is also passionate about educating the next generation of scientists and medics and actively contributes to equality, diversity & inclusion initiatives within UCD.
 
He was inspired to create the CLASS Acts podcast to share the many and varied backgrounds and journeys taken by Conway researchers on their routes to scientific success.

www.ucd.ie/conway

Download

Cormac Taylor: CLASS Acts (UCD Conway)

The Future of the Humanities: Challenges and Opportunities by Professor Dan Carey (MRIA, Director of the Moore Institute, NUI Galway).

About this event

This autumn the UCD Humanities Institute celebrates its 20th anniversary. We can look back over a successful history. Generations of PhDs and postdoctoral fellows have benefitted from the unique research environment offered by the Humanities Institute . Hundreds of conferences, workshops and Distinguished Guest Lectures have placed the Humanities Institute on the national and international maps, and collaborations with external partners and with the other research institutes in UCD have created a vibrant interdisciplinary network spanning the Humanities, Social Sciences and STEM areas. Our Soundcloud is attracting a growing public audience. So there is much to celebrate.

And yet, in recent years the humanities have come under pressure, nationally and internationally. Celebrating the humanities therefore also means articulating a vision for the 21st century.

We would like to invite you to the following special lecture:

Professor Dan Carey (MRIA, Director of the Moore Institute, NUI Galway)
The Future of the Humanities: Challenges and Opportunities

Daniel Carey is a board member of the Irish Research Council and has served as chair of the Irish Humanities Alliance (2014-16). He has held grants from the Mellon Foundation, the IRC, the AHRC, British Academy, MHRA, and other sources, and has mentored 12 postdoctoral fellows funded by Marie Skłodowska Curie actions, the IRC, and other schemes. His current research is a major international project to edit the work of Richard Hakluyt (www.hakluyt.org) and has published widely on intellectual history, colonialism, and economic thought.

Daniel Carey - The Future of the Humanities: Challenges and Opportunities (H1@20)

In the spring and early summer of 2020, the playing of organised sporting competitions in Ireland and across most of the world was effectively suspended. During those months – between March and June 2020 – Prof. Paul Rouse of the School of History in University College Dublin recorded the weekly lecturers of his long running ‘Sport and Ireland: A History’ module. The recordings were undertaken as a series of interviews with Joe Molloy, the award-winning presenter of ‘Off the Ball’ on Newstalk FM and were broadcast live on radio. 

The recordings are available here now courtesy of ‘Off the Ball’. Thank you to Joe Molloy and Ger Gilroy for facilitating this series and for making it available on historyhub.

This is Episode 1: Sport in Ireland: An historical introduction

Sport in Ireland: An historical introduction (Ep1 - Sport and Ireland: A History)

In this episode, Between Love and Coercion: Sexuality in the Holocaust. A lecture by Dr. Anna Hájková from University of Warwick.

This hybrid event took place in UCD School of History on 6 October 2022 and was jointly organised by University College Dublin Centre for War Studies, Holocaust Education Ireland and the UCD History Seminar Series in Gender History.

This talk explores the intersection of queer and Holocaust history through the example of an enforced relationship between two women, a guard and a Jewish woman, in a concentration camp in winter 1945. This coerced relationship raises issues of sexual violence, sexual barter, and homophobia. Based on survivors’ testimonies, postwar trials, and reparation files, Anna Hájková will show how a queer history of the Holocaust allows us to address agency and powerlessness of Holocaust victims.

Anna Hájková - Between Love and Coercion: Sexuality in the Holocaust

Orla Hardiman is Professor of Neurology, Head of the Academic Unit of Neurology and Academic Director of Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute, and Consultant Neurologist at Beaumont Hospital.

She is a science and medical graduate from UCD, and trained in Neurology in Boston. She is the Director of the National ALS Clinical at the National Neuroscience Centre, Beaumont Hospital Dublin Ireland, where she provides clinical are for over 80% of Irish patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) .

She is the author of over 280 peer reviewed publications and editor of a textbook of Neurodegeneration.   Her research interests include the epidemiology, phenotype, biomarker discovery and genetics of ALS. She is Co- Chair of the European Network for Cure of ALS (ENCALS) and is editor in chief of the journal Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and the Frontotemporal Degenerations, and a founder of the Neurological Alliance of Ireland and the Irish Brain Council.   She is the recipient of a number of international honours and awards including the AAN Sheila Essey Award in ALS Research and the International ALS Alliance Forbes Norris Award.

MGA Clinical Influencers

The MGA launched its Podcast Series - MGA Clinical Influencers - in 2022.

During this podcast series, graduates give us a trip down memory lane when describing their time at UCD (and on some occasions in other Schools of Medicine) and as junior doctors.

They discuss their stellar careers in their chosen speciality and highlights and challenges during those careers, how they share their expertise and coach others. On a personal level, they will discuss how they manage a decent work life balance, where that is possible and books for us to enjoy and holiday locations we should be thinking about. Our interviewees have compelling stories to tell that will spark your curiosity about life in the clinical speciality they have chosen and the career path they have travelled.

https://www.ucd.ie/medicine/alumni/mgapodcastseries/

Prof. Orla Hardiman, Professor of Neurology TCD, and Consultant Neurologist at Beaumont Hospital

Professor Geraldine McCarthy is a graduate of UCD School of Medicine and Medical Science. Professor McCarthy received her Fellowship in Rheumatology at the Medical College of Wisconsin where she developed her interest in calcium crystal deposition diseases. Her research has focused on the biological effects of calcium-containing crystals in degenerative joint disease as well as in atherosclerosis and breast cancer.

She was promoted to Associate Professor of Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin in 1996 where she remained until her return to Dublin. She was appointed Consultant in Rheumatology at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital and Cappagh National Orthopedic Hospital in 1999 where she continues to run a busy clinical practice and a clinical research program. 

She teaches as part of the UCD School of Medicine where she was the first clinician to be appointed Full Clinical Professor of Medicine through the Clinical Pathways in 2009.

Professor McCarthy has current international collaborations in the UK, USA, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, particularly in relation to calcium crystal deposition diseases as well as gout.  

She is the author of over 170 publications, including original manuscripts, editorials, reviews and book chapters and has spoken at many national and international meetings.

She has been winner of several research and teaching awards. In 2021, she received the RCPI Institute of Medicine Bryan Alton Medal and in 2022, she received a Lifetime Achievement award from G-CAN (Gout, Hyperuricemia and Crystal-Associated Disease Network).

MGA Clinical Influencers

The MGA launched its Podcast Series - MGA Clinical Influencers - in 2022.

During this podcast series, graduates give us a trip down memory lane when describing their time at UCD (and on some occasions in other Schools of Medicine) and as junior doctors.

They discuss their stellar careers in their chosen speciality and highlights and challenges during those careers, how they share their expertise and coach others. On a personal level, they will discuss how they manage a decent work life balance, where that is possible and books for us to enjoy and holiday locations we should be thinking about. Our interviewees have compelling stories to tell that will spark your curiosity about life in the clinical speciality they have chosen and the career path they have travelled.

https://www.ucd.ie/medicine/alumni/mgapodcastseries/

Prof. Geraldine McCarthy - Head of Rheumatology at Mater Hospital

The Origins with Walter Kolch and Frank Gannon, episode 1 of Precisely: A Precision Medicine Podcast from Systems Biology Ireland at University College Dublin.

SBI Director, Prof. Walter Kolch, leads the first episode in this series. Join us as Walter sits down with Prof. Frank Gannon, former Director General of Science Foundation Ireland, former Executive Director of the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) and, most recently, the Director and CEO of the Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Australia. This informal conversation reflects on the origins of precision medicine from a policy and research perspective in Ireland, noting some of the key developments in the area (e.g. systems and network driven approaches) and also the expanding role of artificial intelligence and its numerous areas for application as it stands now.

Listen to the series on:
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-origins-with-walter-kolch-and-frank-gannon/id1706846108?i=1000627549227
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3uPqEVoXOTkVRlRyEEPRNO?si=1512496ec04441d8
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/real-smart-media/sets/precisely-a-precision-medicine

Links:
Systems Biology Ireland (ucd.ie) https://www.ucd.ie/sbi/
Scientific Advisory Board | Precision Oncology Ireland https://www.precisiononcology.ie/people/poiboards/scientificadvisoryboard/

Twitter: 
https://twitter.com/sysbioire
https://twitter.com/PrecisionOncIre 
https://twitter.com/gannonqimrb

The Origins with Walter Kolch and Frank Gannon

Dr Ray Power graduated from Medicine at UCD in 1988. After completing his specialist training in General Practice, he worked in Australia both with the Royal Flying Doctor Service and the University of Western Australia where he completed an MBA and attained Fellowship from the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine. 

A co-founder of Centric Health, Dr Power believes that the doctor-patient relationship is at the core of effective healthcare promoting patient health and wellbeing. He believes the impact of deep and meaningful relationships between patients and their GPs is about prevention and not hyper-intervention, it is moving from a sickness to a wellness model, it is about having the time to hear patients’ concerns and strive to keep them healthy in their own communities.

Dr Power is also an adjunct Clinical Associate Professor at the UCD School of Medicine, enabling international academic partnerships.

MGA Clinical Influencers

The MGA launched its Podcast Series - MGA Clinical Influencers - in 2022.

During this podcast series, graduates give us a trip down memory lane when describing their time at UCD (and on some occasions in other Schools of Medicine) and as junior doctors.

They discuss their stellar careers in their chosen speciality and highlights and challenges during those careers, how they share their expertise and coach others. On a personal level, they will discuss how they manage a decent work life balance, where that is possible and books for us to enjoy and holiday locations we should be thinking about. Our interviewees have compelling stories to tell that will spark your curiosity about life in the clinical speciality they have chosen and the career path they have travelled.

https://www.ucd.ie/medicine/alumni/mgapodcastseries/

Dr Ray Power - Co-founder of Centric Health

Dr Gary O’Toole studied Medicine at UCD, graduating in 1996, and completed his internship and basic surgical training in St Vincent’s University Hospital from 1996 – 1999.

His orthopaedic training was on the Irish Specialist Training Programme in Orthopaedic Surgery (1999-2004). He then completed two specialist fellowship training programmes. The first in adult hip and knee reconstruction in the Mater Hospital in Sydney, Australia; the second in orthopaedic oncology in Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, USA. He has an interest in adult arthritis (both hip and knee) and knee sports injuries. He also has a keen interest in musculoskeletal cancer (bone and soft tissue tumours).

Gary is also a retired Irish Olympic swimmer – he represented Ireland in the Seoul and Barcelona Games. While studying at UCD, O'Toole won a 200m breaststroke silver medal at the 1989 European Long Course Championships in Bonn. He also won a gold medal at the World University Championships in 1991 when representing UCD. He helped to break 5 National relay records, including Short Course and Longcourse. 

As a prominent member of the Irish Amateur Swimming Association, O'Toole had been approached to make representations on behalf of the victims of the George Gibney scandal. Gibney, who coached O'Toole until he became aware of these allegations, criticised O'Toole publicly during the 1992 Olympics. His complaints were ignored and led to a major investigation into the incidents and ultimately to the disbandment of the IASA, and the creation of Swim Ireland.

MGA Clinical Influencers

The MGA launched its Podcast Series - MGA Clinical Influencers - in 2022.

During this podcast series, graduates give us a trip down memory lane when describing their time at UCD (and on some occasions in other Schools of Medicine) and as junior doctors.

They discuss their stellar careers in their chosen speciality and highlights and challenges during those careers, how they share their expertise and coach others. On a personal level, they will discuss how they manage a decent work life balance, where that is possible and books for us to enjoy and holiday locations we should be thinking about. Our interviewees have compelling stories to tell that will spark your curiosity about life in the clinical speciality they have chosen and the career path they have travelled.

https://www.ucd.ie/medicine/alumni/mgapodcastseries/

Dr Gary O'Toole - Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon

In episode two of History Hub's Educational Resources podcast, History Hub editor Dr Irial Glynn is in conversation with UCD's Dr Fionnuala Walsh about the campaign for women's suffrage in Ireland. 

About Fionnuala Walsh

Dr Fionnuala Walsh is a Lecturer in Modern Irish History in University College Dublin. She is the author of 'Irish women and the Great War, which was published by Cambridge University Press in 2020.

About the series:
UCD School of History presents 'History Hub's Educational Resources', a brand new podcast series for all history students - young and old. The series, which consists of interviews and lectures, features UCD historians sharing their expertise on topics such as: The Anglo-Irish Treaty; the development of fascism in interwar Europe; the Irish Women's suffrage movement; and the Catholic Church in twentieth century Ireland.

Fionnuala Walsh on the campaign for women's suffrage in Ireland

Episode three of History Hub's Educational Resources podcast features a lecture on fascist regimes in interwar Europe by Professor Robert Gerwarth.

Robert Gerwarth is Professor of Modern History at University College Dublin and Director of the Centre for War Studies. His publications include: 

November 1918: The German Revolution. 2020.
The Vanquished: Why the First World War Failed to End, 1917–1923
Hitler's Hangman: The Life of Heydrich, and
The Bismarck Myth.

About the series:
UCD School of History presents 'History Hub's Educational Resources', a brand new podcast series for all history students - young and old. The series, which consists of interviews and lectures, features UCD historians sharing their expertise on topics such as: The Anglo-Irish Treaty; the development of fascism in interwar Europe; the Irish Women's suffrage movement; and the Catholic Church in twentieth century Ireland.

Fascist regimes in interwar Europe - a lecture by Robert Gerwarth

Real Smart Media is a Dublin based audiovisual production and web management company. Recording and podcasting events is a specialty.

Prof. Geraldine McCarthy - Head of Rheumatology at Mater Hospital

Real Smart Media

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