The annual NUI Galway Alumni Awards will be presented at the University's annual Gala Banquet, which will take place in the Radisson SAS Hotel, on Saturday, 6 March, 2004. Over 600 alumni, friends and corporate partners of the University will gather to celebrate this hallmark event. Funds raised at the banquet will support NUI Galway's Access and Scholarship Programme in Marine Science – helping students overcome barriers to education. Launched in 2000 under the aegis of the NUI Galway Alumni Association, these annual awards celebrate the life-long value of an NUI Galway education and recognise individual excellence among the more than 50,000 graduates worldwide. Alumni Officer Betsy Kilkenny said, " The Awards represent the broad scope of disciplines in which our graduates excel, from engineering, business, medicine and the arts, to law, science and the Irish language." Now in its fourth year, the Alumni Awards Programme has expanded to include two new awards - Duais don Ghaeilge, sponsored by Hewlett-Packard and the Award for Natural Science, sponsored by Seavite Bodycare Ltd. This brings the number of Awards to seven. This year the Award for Engineering, IT and Mathematics is sponsored by TBD Building Contractors. Alumni Awards will be presented to the following graduates: TBD Award for Engineering, IT and Mathematics Mr Tom Costello, Managing Director, John Sisk & Son Ltd. Bank of Ireland Award for Business and Commerce Dr Ronan Lambe, Director ICON Clinical Research This award acknowledges a graduate who has demonstrated excellence and leadership in the world of business and commerce. Medtronic Award for Health Care and Medical Science Professor Fred Given, National Breast Cancer Research Institute This award acknowledges a graduate who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of health care and medical science. Hewlett-Packard Award for Literature, Communication and the Arts Mr Michael D Higgins TD, Former Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, Labour Party President. This award acknowledges a graduate who has made an outstanding contribution in the area of Literature, Communications and the Arts. NUI Galway Award for Law, Public Service and Government Dr Eamonn Hall, Chief Legal Counsel, Eircom plc Duais Hewlett-Packard don Ghaeilge Pádraig Feirtéar, Principal, Mheánscoil na mBráithre, Dingle, Co. Kerry Tugann an duais seo admháil ar chéimí a chuir le luach na Gaeilge mar acmhainn nádúrtha, forbartha agus eacnamaíochta. Seavite Award for Natural Science Professor Emer Colleran, Professor Microbiology, Director Environmental Change Institute, NUI Galway. This award acknowledges a graduate who has made an outstanding contribution in the field of Natural Science - a science, such as biology, chemistry, or physics that deals with the objects, phenomena, or laws of nature and the physical world. Ends

Mr. Noel Dempsey, TD, Minister for Education and Science, will be in NUI Galway tomorrow (Friday) to open a suite of research laboratories and also to open an international conference on Learning. At 12.00 noon, the Minister will open the newly established Genome Stability Laboratories which currently include the Laboratories of Professor Noel Lowndes and Drs Morrison and Nasheuer and form part of the recently established Genome Stability Cluster. This Cluster was established at NUI Galway two years ago to carry out cancer research and is the first of its kind in Ireland. The Genome Cluster is headed by Professor Noel Lowndes of the University s Department of Biochemistry and the National Centre for Biomedical Engineering Science, which is also on the NUI Galway campus. Professor Lowndes has established an international reputation in cellular responses to DNA damage. His research team is studying how normal cells respond when the genetic material is damaged and how defects in these responses result in cancer. Later in the day, at 2.00 p.m., the Minister will open the second annual Irish Universities Quality Board Conference, entitled "Learning in the Europe of Knowledge", which will take place in the Ó hEocha Theatre. The two-day conference is an official event of Ireland's Presidency of the European Union. Education experts from the U.S., Australia, Britain and Spain will address issues such as learning technologies; improving learning through teaching development; and meeting the challenge of engaging students with diverse experiences and expectations. Ends

Máire Éilís Ni Fhlatharta, who plays the character of Caitríona, the feisty trouble-maker in Ros na Rún will officially open Múscailt 04, NUI Galway s Spring Arts Festival which runs from 13- 20 February, 2004. For one whole week the campus will be alive with concerts, theatre, dance, exhibitions, readings, film and live performances. Almost all events are free and everybody is welcome. 'Múscailt' means to awaken/inspire/celebrate. The theatrical highlight will be Belfast Blues by Geri Hughes, the one-person show which provides a humourous, touching portrayal of a young girl growing up in a troubled Belfast. Comic genius Tommy Tiernan will perform a stand-up gig especially for students and staff in the O Flaherty theatre, his first show ever on campus. "This is the fourth annual arts festival on campus and we are delighted that 'Múscailt' gets better every year," says Fionnuala Gallagher, NUI Galway's Arts Officer. "There is a wealth of talent in the student societies and that combined with performances from well-known, established artists has resulted in a very exciting programme of events. We hope the people of Galway will join with us in this tremendous celebration of the arts." One of the many innovative and exciting events on the programme is a poetry slam on the theme Múscailt/Awakening. This will take place in the college bar with Pete Mullineaux doing MC and there will be great prizes for best poems and best performances. Alice in Wonderland is this year s musical in the Black Box Theatre, showcasing the combined talents of the dramatic, choral, orchestral and dance societies with some staff members taking cameo roles. Film Festival is an eclectic mix of shorts and feature films and boasts a Film Forum on Screenwriting with special guests Rod Stoneman, Lelia Doolin and Irish film-makers Gerry Stembridge, Ronan Gallagher and Liz Gill. Special guest writers will be Nevfel Cumart, Turkish-German poet who will read from his latest collection and Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill who will present a specially commissioned poem. The creative talents of the student societies have combined to produce a wide range of events: literary, drama, dance, art, photographic, the musical and film festival among others. Exhibitions from Photosoc are also well worth a visit. Dramsoc is showcasing a series of original one-act plays in collaboration with the M.A. in Writing and M.A. in Drama and Theatre programmes alongside Teatro Punto s Don t Sleep and The Lovely Ladies clown show STOP. Rockbands Label, Blue Sun and Charis share the billing with the NUI Galway Barbershop Quartet, Sean-nós singer Josie Shéain Jeaic MacDonncha, and ConTempo String Quartet. The highlight of many exhibitions will be the new acquisitions in the NUI Galway Art Collection, which includes Seán McSweeney, Derek Hill, Terry Frost, Brian Bourke, Louis LeBroquy alongside recently restored works of historical value by Robert Gregory and James Holland Snr. Múscailt 04 presents the perfect opportunity to take part in the cultural life of NUI Galway. The festival is supported by Galway University Foundation and the Arts Office. For more information check: www.nuigalway.ie/arts_office/ Tel. Arts Office: 091 512062 Ends

A pioneering intergenerational programme, established by NUI Galway's Adult and Continuing Education Office is celebrating its fifth birthday this year. The programme called "Living Scenes", which is the only one of its kind in the country, has been piloted with the Presentation Secondary School, Galway and Active Retirement Groups city-wide. A celebration of what the group has achieved will take place this week in An Taibhdhearc Theatre, Galway (Wednesday March 31; 7pm). The 'Living Scenes' project is co-ordinated by the Adult and Continuing Education Department at NUI Galway and involves a core group of fifty retired adults working with the transition-year students (16 year olds), for a two and a half-hour weekly slot on four identified modules, namely Music, Art, Drama and Writing. Learning is facilitated by Tutors who adhere to University-defined operational guidelines. Presentation Secondary School has appointed an internal Co-ordinator for this project. The aim of the project is to promote the sharing of culture, heritage, tradition and experience between older and younger members of society in an educational setting. Participants are encouraged to discover common links between both generations, to foster mutual respect for each other and to promote active and experiential learning. "Living Scenes has endeavoured to respond to evident "gaps" emerging in the fabric of our communities", says Mary Surlis, Project Officer, NUI Galway. "This is evident in the disintegration of the family unit and in particular that of the extended family, where increasingly, grandparents and grandchildren are alienated from each other by a constantly changing cultural and social environment". Presentation Secondary School Principal Michael McCann, says that "the non-judgmental attitude of the older adults, has an empowering effect on the transition year students, facilitating them to feel secure and confident in themselves in a learning environment." He went on to say that, "in keeping with the ethos of transition year, this project sees experiential learning taking place in an active and informal environment, which greatly enhances the holistic development of the students." Ann De Búrca, "Living Scenes" school-based co-ordinator says, "As a teacher co-ordinating the project in the school for the last three years, I have seen the project enhance the self-development and maturity of each group of students in turn. Perhaps the most significant and evident contribution of the project has been the enabling and empowering effect of the older adults' participation on the transition year students". According to Ms. De Búrca, the adults in their dedication, enthusiasm and zest for life and living, has greatly enriched the five transition-year classes who have been privileged to be part of the project. "It has been a liberating and positive learning experience for all of us involved with "Living Scenes"", she says. Academic research has been carried out on "Living Scenes" to evaluate the project in a developmental curricular capacity and to identify its contribution in an educational context in a transition year secondary school programme. The findings of this research have implications for policy makers, as well as school and community groups interested in initiating change in a curricular context. Ends

The implantation of prosthetic or artificial heart valves in patients suffering acute cardiovascular problems has taken place for many years. Each year around 275,000 patients worldwide receive replacement heart valves, of which 55% are mechanical prostheses. An innovative technique to aid design of these implants has been developed by a research team at NUI Galway. "One of the many engineering challenges prosthetic valves present is the difficulty of avoiding clot formation," says Dr. Nathan Quinlan, of NUI Galway's Department of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering and the National Centre for Biomedical Engineering Science, which is also based on the Galway campus. "The valves can give rise to unnaturally severe fluid dynamics in the blood that flows through them. This in turn aggravates blood cells and can trigger the coagulation process." Many artificial valve recipients require lifelong drug therapy to prevent clot formation. Understanding of dynamics of blood flow in all kinds of heart valves is therefore crucial to development of better valves. The NUI Galway team studied heart valve flows with an experimental fluid dynamics technique that had not previously been widely used for this purpose. "The technique allows us to visualise and measure the flow of an artificial blood substitute without disturbing the flow, and at a level of detail that was more difficult to attain by existing methods," says Dr. Quinlan. "Specifically, we have demonstrated the technique in a realistic model heart system to study the flow from two types of mechanical prosthetic valve into the ventricle." The research team found surprising complexity in the flow in the ventricle itself, which may have some clinical significance. "Our visualisation of the flow in the model ventricle raises some interesting questions" says Dr. Quinlan. "What we have developed is an improved tool for developers and designers of artificial heart valves. This should aid understanding of complex fluid dynamics in the next generation of replacement heart valves." The research team of Dr. Quinlan, Dr. John Eaton and postgraduate student, Donal Taylor, were awarded the Bronze Medal for the best paper at the annual conference of the Bioengineering Section of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland, in January. Their paper was entitled "Measurements of three-dimensional unsteady flow in a model left ventricle with prosthetic valves." The work draws on the expertise and facilities of the Aerospace Research Centre, which since 1990 has been a centre of excellence for fluid dynamics research in the University. Other projects underway in the Biofluid Dynamics Laboratory in the NCBES include investigations of air flow in the lung and of microscopic blood flow around individual cells. The heart valve research was funded by the HEA Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (PRTLI). Ends