Irish Research Council congratulates alumna on award of 2017 Royal Irish Academy Young Chemist prize

The Irish Research Council is pleased congratulate alumna Dr Junsi Wang on winning the 2017 Royal Irish Academy’s Young Chemist Prize for her doctoral research. Dr Wang was funded through the Council’s prestigious Government of Ireland Postgraduate Programme for her PhD studies at Trinity College Dublin under the supervision of Professor Sylvia Draper.

The RIA Young Chemist Prize is granted to the most outstanding Irish PhD thesis in the general area of chemical sciences. Dr Wang’s winning paper entitled ‘In search of strong light-harvesting and long-lived Ru(II) and Ir(III) triplet photosensitisers’ focuses on a process called upconversion. This has been shown to improve the efficiency of solar cells and to broaden the application of photodynamic therapy in the treatment of certain types of cancer. Her research results have made an impactful contribution to this field.

The Council’s Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship Programme offers scholarships for exceptional scholars to pursue a research master’s or PhD in any discipline, at eligible higher education institutions in Ireland. Dr Wang’s recognition by the RIA Young Chemist Prize demonstrates the importance of the Council’s endeavours to support the education and skills development of excellent individual early-stage researchers and cultivate agile independent researchers and thinkers. This is the second consecutive year that the RIA Young Chemist Prize goes to a Council-awardee.

The Council wishes to congratulate Dr Wang on this remarkable achievement.

Read more on the Royal Irish Academy’s website.