AIT Pharmaceutical Sciences Student Awarded Prestigious Royal Society of Chemistry Bursary

An AIT pharmaceutical science student has been awarded the prestigious Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Undergraduate Research Bursary for 2021.

Ciara Fitzpatrick, a third-year BSc (Hons) in Pharmaceutical Sciences student from Athlone, Co Westmeath, will use the bursary to conduct a research project in inorganic chemistry over the summer months.

The purpose of the RSC Undergraduate Research Bursary is to foster the potential of promising undergraduate students by giving them research experience and, ultimately, encouraging them to consider a career in scientific research. 

A student member of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Ciara became interested in the society after undertaking a module in Professional and Transferable Skills for Pharmaceutical Scientists earlier this year.

Ciara’s outstanding academic grades were cited as among the reasons for her award. She is also an AIT Scholarship of Excellence recipient, having achieved in excess of 500 points in her Leaving Certificate examinations. 

The Royal Society of Chemistry and the Research Bursary scheme is highly competitive and open to students studying chemistry across all the universities and HEIs in the UK and the Republic of Ireland.

Congratulating Ciara on her award, Dr Don Faller, Dean of Faculty, Science and Health at AIT, called it a “tremendous achievement” and said it was “a testimony to the high standard” of students pursuing AIT's BSc (Hons) in Pharmaceutical Sciences programme, which is accredited by Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences (APS) in the UK. 

Dr Brian Murphy, a specialist in coordination chemistry and a senior lecturer in the Department of Life and Physical Sciences at AIT, will supervise Ciara’s research.

Athlone Institute of Technology is a research-led third-level institute with an applied, industry-focused offering, world-class research and development capabilities, and state-of-the-art facilities. Winner of The Sunday Times Institute of the Year 2020 and 2018, AIT is Ireland’s top-ranked institute of technology and is on track to open its doors as the country’s third technological university in autumn 2021. AIT tops Ireland’s official league table for research and was listed in U-Multirank’s Top 25 Performing Universities in the World for Interdisciplinary Research in 2018 and 2019. For information relating to the institute’s undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, visit www.ait.ie.