November University of Galway celebrates 2024 Hardiman PhD scholars

University of Galway has welcomed 19 research students to campus as part of the Hardiman PhD Scholarship.

The new scholars come from more than a dozen different countries to take part in the scheme and the opportunity to pursue a structured doctorate at the University on topics aligned to five key areas of research:

- Enhancing policy and society

- Enriching creativity and culture

- Improving health and wellbeing

- Realising potential through data and enabling technologies

- Sustaining our planet and people

Applications for the 2025 round of Hardiman PhD Scholarships will open on Monday December 2nd, and will remain open until Friday February 7th, 2025 at 5pm. For more information or to apply for a Hardiman PhD Scholarships visit www.universityofgalway.ie/hardiman-scholarships.

            Professor Dónal Leech, Dean of Graduate Studies at University of Galway, said: “Hardiman Research scholar recipients join the University to undertake deep, creative, and distinct research supported by our excellent academic supervisors. The 19 scholars were selected from a large pool of applicants seeking to develop their research skills and independence through our renowned structured PhD programmes. The scholarship is a recognition of excellence for the awardees and provides fee and stipend support over four years for the researchers to generate new knowledge that improves our world.”

The 2024 Hardiman PhD scholars and their subject areas include:

College of Arts, Social Sciences, and Celtic Studies:

• Katie Cox, Ireland - The pathways and factors involved in right-wing radicalisation and extremism among young people in Ireland.
• Conor McDonough, Ireland – The study of the Bible in early medieval Ireland.
• Honor Faughnan, England - The Transmission and Creative Reshaping of Senecan Tragedy in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages.
• Sveva Zafferri, Italy – Investigating the potentialities and challenges of integrating Artificial Intelligence technologies in Foreign Language Teaching through Audiovisual Translation.
• Jeannine Bätz, Germany - International cultural studies, comparative literary studies.
• Hau Nguyen, Vietnam - Understanding sexual health services utilisation among men experiencing homelessness in Ireland.

College of Business, Public Policy and Law:

• Dewan Scholtz, South Africa - Investigating the Application and Extent of Control Theory and Temporal Structuring Through Crowd Dynamics in Online Open-Source Platforms.
• Ramez Alhayek, Palestine – International Criminal Law and Genocide Studies: Research assesses whether Israeli conduct towards Palestinians—since 1948—aligns with the legal definition of genocide under the Genocide Convention
• Patrick Wing McHale, Australia - Studying the impacts of climate change and industrialisation on children's health, well-being, and education outcomes.
• Michelle O’Donnell, Ireland - Examining the people dimension during scaling and how it can be balanced with economic objectives.
• Grace Barnes, England - The operation of sexual stereotypes in human rights discourses and how disabled women’s identities are shaped in this context.

College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences:

• Jia Wei Teh, Malaysia - Study of Mineralocorticoid Receptor Antagonists in Hypokalaemic Hypertension.
• Oran McNamara, Ireland - Investigating Bumetanide as a potential therapeutic intervention in the treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease.
• Yajaira Feller Sánchez, Canary Islands – Research will focus on neuroscience, specifically studying novel mutations that lead to severe epilepsy in children.
• Ross Walsh, Ireland - Exploring early stromal changes in colorectal cancer using advanced imaging and AI techniques to enhance diagnosis.

College of Science and Engineering:

• Asena Isik Gürhan, Turkey - The Molecular Programming of self-organised DNA interfaces for nanoscale quantification using Divergent-Diffusion-based AI Models.
• Gift Samuel David, Nigeria – Research will focus on marine biological resources, particularly microplastic pollution, fisheries, food safety and marine ecotoxicology, aimed at conserving marine environments and ecosystems.
• Mohsen Abbasi-Asl, Iran - Biostatistics: Developing personalized reference ranges for monitoring blood pressure.
• Zarghona Hassani – Afghanistan - Investigating the role of IRE1 -JUP signaling access in cancer cell migration.

Ends