School of Natural Sciences PhD Student Wins EPA Award

Posted on: 31 January 2011

School of Natural Sciences student, Ruth Doyle, who is studying for a PhD in Geography, was announced as joint winner of the Environmental Protection Agency poster competition at the annual Postgraduate Conference held in Dublin recently.  The prizes, which are awarded to Ireland’s brightest researchers, will help promote Ruth’s research which is based in the TCD led CONSENSUS project, a cross-border analysis of consumption, environment and sustainability in Ireland. 

CONSENSUS, which is headed up by TCD’s Associate Professor of Geography, Anna Davies, is a collaborative research project involving TCD and NUIG and examines four key areas of household consumption that currently impact negatively on the environment and inhibit our ability, both in Northern Ireland and the Republic, to achieve sustainable development: transport, energy, water and food.  On completion, the project will provide an overview of international best practice and design recommendations for national programmes in Ireland concerning sustainable consumption and production policies, in addition to recommendations about procedures, techniques and policies for advancing sustainability at the local level.

Speaking about Ruth’s success Head of the School of Natural Sciences, Professor John Parnell said: “Ruth’s achievements at both undergraduate and postgraduate level have been outstanding and show great promise for her future academic career.  They are also indicative of the very high quality of students studying at the School of Natural Sciences at TCD.”

Ruth Doyle.

Ruth was also shortlisted with two other research students, Aimee Byrne and Jessica Pape, all of whom are working with TCD’s Professor Anna Davies, for the Globe Forum Conference Early Career Researchers Contest.  In total only 15 students across the Irish higher education sector were shortlisted for this award.   The School of Natural Sciences at Trinity College comprises of the disciplines of Botany, Geography, Geology, Zoology, the Centre for Environment, and the Centre for Biodiversity Research.