News and events
2025-26
- 2026 Kathleen Lonsdale Royal Irish Academy Chemistry Prize awarded to Dr Filippo Pota
- Trinity Monday 2026 - Congratulations to our new Scholars
- Success at the 23rd National Eurachem Analytical Measurement Competition
- VACANCY: Assistant Professor in Medicinal Chemistry
- Nature Communications Article featured in RSC Chemistry World
- Dr Filippo Pota announced as winner of the 2026 Kathleen Lonsdale RIA Chemistry Prize
- BOC Gases Awards
- VACANCY: Research Fellow in Chemistry Education and Public Engagement (EPE)
- Coffee Morning Money Handed to UNICEF
- No Tricks, Just Treats: School of Chemistry hold Coffee Morning in Aid of UNICEF
2026 Kathleen Lonsdale Royal Irish Academy Chemistry Prize awarded to Dr Filippo Pota
Dr Filippo Pota, a recent graduate of Trinity College Dublin, has been recognised for his innovative work developing environmentally friendly, cost-effective catalysts for biomass valorisation.
Dr Pota was presented with the 2026 Kathleen Lonsdale RIA Chemistry Prize at a ceremony in the Royal Irish Academy on Tuesday, 5 May. The prestigious prize, which is sponsored by Henkel, is awarded for outstanding doctoral research in the chemical sciences carried out on the island of Ireland. The award is named in honour of the famous Irish x-ray crystallographer, Kathleen Lonsdale, who was born on 28 January 1903. The prize includes an award of €2,000 and the prize winner is also nominated by the Royal Irish Academy to represent Ireland in the 2026 IUPAC-Solvay International Award for Young Chemists.
Dr Pota was selected as the winner of the 2026 for his PhD thesis entitled, ‘Metal@carbon nitrogenated porous architectures as novel sustainable catalysts for electrocatalytic hydrogenation of biomass-derived organics.’
During the ceremony two highly commended awards sponsored by the Royal Society of Chemistry were also presented to Dr Dominik Duleba, University College Dublin, for his thesis, ‘From fundamentals to applications: harnessing digital chemistry for nanopore sensor development’ and to Dr Niraj Nitish Patil, University of Limerick, for his thesis, ‘Mechanistic Elucidation and Tailored Synthesis of Nanoscale Colloidal Functional Materials for Energy Conversion Technologies.’
Co-funded by the Research Ireland Frontiers for the Future programme, Dr Filippo Pota’s PhD research explores the use of Metal@Carbon:Nitrogen (M@C:N) materials as a viable, low-cost alternative for hydrogenating biomass-derived organics, a process that extracts energy from organic waste products. Bioenergy, derived from biomass such as plant and animal matter, agricultural and forestry residues, and organic waste, accounts for the largest share of renewable energy consumption in Europe. Fully exploiting its potential requires converting oxygen-rich biomass compounds into more hydrogenated products, a process that until now has been dominated thermal catalytic hydrogenation (TCH), which relies on precious metal catalysts and requires hydrogen sourced predominantly from fossil fuels. Dr Pota’s research investigates the use of low-cost and non-critical metals, iron (Fe), molybdenum (Mo), and tungsten (W), as active sites for the design, synthesis and characterisation of M@C:N architectures that can be used for electrocatalytic hydrogenation (ECH) a more sustainable alternative to TCH.
Filippo Pota is an Italian chemist. He pursued his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemistry from the University of Naples ‘Federico II’ before moving to Ireland where he received his PhD from Trinity College Dublin in 2025, under supervision from Professor Paula Colavita. His research centres on combining sustainable chemistry with circular economy principles. He currently works as Research and Development specialist where his work focuses on waste valorisation and the transformation of by-products into sustainable solutions.
Dr Niamh O’Boyle, Chair of the Kathleen Lonsdale Prize assessment panel, said during the ceremony:
"Dr Pota’s PhD research displayed excellent technical knowledge of nanostructures and synthetic protocols paired with rigorous research methodologies and the commendable goal of utilising chemistry to tackle a real-world challenge. He presented a strong rationale for the research and backed this up with breakthrough findings. We will be very interested to see the ways in which this research is applied in the context of biomass valorisation."
The prize winner and two highly commended candidates had the opportunity to present their research to an audience at the Royal Irish Academy.
*Article was supplied to TCD as a press release from the Royal Irish Academy - http://www.ria.ie
Trinity Monday 2026 - Congratulations to our new Scholars
Congratulations to TR061 Chemical Sciences students Malva Elvira Ramos Serrano and Maksymilian Jakub Kaluza, who were elected to Scholarship on Trinity Monday. Well done to all students who sat the exams and congratulations to all newly elected scholars. It is a great achievement.
A full list of Scolars and Fellows announced on Trinity Monday 2026 can be found here
Success at the 23rd National Eurachem Analytical Measurement Competition
Congratulations to Nikita Mitrofanovs and Maksymilian Kaluza runners up in the 23rd National Eurachem Analytical Measurement Competition (EAMC), hosted by ATU Galway on Friday 17 April. The EAMC is a national competition open to teams of two full time, third level students studying laboratory sciences in universities and technological universities across Ireland. To be eligible, students must not yet have entered the third year of their programme. The competition challenges participants to demonstrate their knowledge, technical ability, and problem solving skills in analytical measurement and laboratory techniques.
The competition was assessed by an expert judging panel with extensive experience across state laboratories, industry, and regulatory accreditation:
- Dr Jonathan Carrol, The State Laboratory
- Derek Kenny, Takeda Pharmaceutical Ltd
- Jurgita Busher, Public Analyst Laboratory, Galway
Eurachem is a European association of professional analysts with strong links to international organisations dedicated to promoting excellence and reliability in analytical measurement. It serves as a reference body for international standards and provides guidance to industry, government, and other stakeholders seeking best practice in laboratory accreditation and legal benchmarking. Eurachem Ireland brings together members from state bodies, industry, and education, and supports the analytical science community through workshops and seminars for analysts, educators, and managers. Topics include method validation, measurement uncertainty, and traceability.
VACANCY: Assistant Professor in Medicinal Chemistry
The School of Chemistry invites applications for a position of Assistant Professor in Medicinal Chemistry. Applications are sought from candidates at an early stage in their career with proven potential for research and teaching excellence in Medicinal and Organic Chemistry. The successful applicant will be a full member of the academic staff in the School and of the Organic, Medicinal and Biological Discipline. They will work with other academic staff, researchers, and students in a lively, collaborative, and international environment for research and scholarly endeavours. They will be able to avail of state-of-the-art facilities offered by the School and by the Trinity Biomedical Research Institute (TBSI).
The successful candidate will be expected to contribute at all levels to undergraduate teaching within the Discipline and to interdisciplinary teaching across both undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes. Candidates will have a proposed research programme in Medicinal Chemistry, with a synthetic and/or computational focus that strengthens existing activities, which currently have a broad focus in areas of Medicinal Chemistry, Supramolecular chemistry and Sensors, Catalysis, Tetrapyrroles, Peptide and DNA chemistry and Chemical Biology.
The successful applicant will also have the opportunity to engage and contribute to ongoing interdisciplinary research initiatives in the School of Chemistry and research institutes. Post Status Tenure Track - This position is Tenure Track position which is 5-years in the first instance, permanency is subject to satisfying the tenure requirements.
Salary:
Appointment will be made on the Lecturer Salary Scale (109BN) commensurate with qualifications / experience and in line with Public Sector Pay Policy [€43,425 to €103,582 per annum]
How to Apply:
Candidates should submit by e-recruitment:
- Cover letter
- Full curriculum vitae, list of publications and the names and contact details of 3 referees (e-mail address if possible)
- Research plan (summarising research to be carried out in the next three years and including details of funding to be sought – 2 pages maximum)
- Teaching statement (summarising teaching experience and approach – 2 pages maximum)
Closing Date:
12 noon (Irish Standard Time) 8th April 2026
Application will only be accepted by applying online through the Trinity Jobs Portal http://jobs.tcd.ie
Applications must be made by the date and time specified. Please allow enough time to make your application. Any applications which are still in progress at the closing time on the specified closing date will be cancelled automatically by the system Late Applications will not be accepted
Nature Communications Article featured in RSC Chemistry World
A recent Nature Communications article resulting from a collaborative project led by Dr. Clare Bakewell (King’s College London) and Dr. Tobias Kraemer (Trinity College Dublin) has been featured in RSC Chemistry World, spotlighting the growing importance of aluminium(I) chemistry.
You can view the article here
BOC Gases Awards
The annual postgraduate BOC Gases bursaries were awarded to three former PhD students from the School of Chemistry on Friday, December 5th. Students were nominated by their supervisors for consideration for the bursary during the nomination round and a panel of the school’s academic staff from across the Chemistry disciplines judged the submissions. With great difficulty due to the high standard of submissions, the judges identified three students whose work shone above the rest. Manting Mu (Garcia Melchor group), Filippo Pota (Colavita group) and Anastasiia Shandra (Nicolosi group) each gave a 15-minute presentation of their work to the school and to BOC Gases representative, James Kelch who presented them with certificates and their bursaries of €1250, €750 and €500 respectively.
Congratulations to all 3 prizewinners.
Coffee Morning Money Handed to UNICEF
On Tuesday, December 2nd Prof. Isabel Rozas (as part of "The Coven") made the walk across the river to the UNICEF offices to hand in the cash portion of the money raised during our coffee morning. Over €1200 was raised including €750 in cash and and the rest donated directly via the UNICEF website on the day.
Well done to all involved!
No Tricks, Just Treats: School of Chemistry hold Coffee Morning in Aid of UNICEF
On Friday, October 24th, the School of Chemistry was delighted to host a coffee morning in aid of UNICEF in our tea room. Delicious treats were provided by budding bakers among the staff and students of the school with a great diversity of cakes, breads, biscuits and other baked goods on offer
It was wonderful to see such a great turnout, with support not only from our own students and staff but also from colleagues and friends across Physics, Pharmacy, Health Sciences, and Politics.
Thanks to everyone's generosity and enthusiasm, we raised over €1,200 for UNICEF — nearly €750 collected in cash and the rest donated directly via the UNICEF website.
Thank you all for making the event such a success!
