Robert Nesbitt

SFI-funded MSc scholar

‌Rab completed a research masters at NUI Galway, as part of the SFI-funded project Exploiting and Conserving Deep-sea Genetic Resources.  His thesis was titled “Specialised Metabolites of Deep-sea Sponges from Ireland”.  Rab worked mostly in the School of Chemistry, isolating several interesting novel compounds and deriving the structures of those compounds using mass spectrophotometry and NMR.  Rab’s primary supervisor was Prof Olivier Thomas in Chemistry, but the interdisciplinary nature of the project meant that Rab’s genuine interest in the marine environment was brought into play during the deep-sea expedition that he joined to collect samples.