2023/24 Academic Achievements (Part 2)

We recently summarised the achievements of our academic staff during the 2023/2024 Academic Year, so here’s a recap of what our research staff and postgraduate/undergraduate students have achieved.

1. Many postgrads were successful with funding awards to attend conferences and summer schools. A few examples:?

• PhD student Antoine Dupuy received Faculty of Education and Health Sciences UL Internal Support Funding Award 2024 to present at the Esports Research Network Conference 2024 in London.?

• PhD graduate Dr Padraic Rocliffe was one of 30 selected from 2,000 applicants for the World Health Organisation Summer School Systems Thinking in Nice, France.??

2. Alongside academic and practitioner colleagues from Australia, Canada, and England, PESS Marie Curie Research Fellow Jenna R. Lorusso organised a policy-focused professional learning pre-conference workshop for international physical education stakeholders at the May 2024 AIESEP conference.?

3. PhD students Caera Grady and Aidan Buffey , and PhD graduates Claire Walsh and Padraic Rocliffe were awarded for their outstanding commitment to the UL PhD community. They were presented with Gold and Silver President’s Volunteer Awards for their voluntary contributions.

4. PhD student Darragh O'Sullivan was awarded the American College of Sports Medicine March Center Student Research Award 2024 in Boston after presenting his recent meta-analytic findings on the effect of resistance training exercise on depression.?

5. PESS PhD students Jen Rice , Daire Fitzmaurice , Darragh O'Sullivan , and Tadgh Pyne contributed to Exercise is Medicine Gold Campus award. By receiving this certificate, the EIM On Campus program at the University of Limerick maintained this distinction since 2020.?

6. PhD graduate Patrick Dolan, PhD SCCC was selected to participate in the Irish Universities Association 3-Minute Thesis. Patrick’s fascinating presentation was titled “Thousands of Resources For a Few Dozen Players, Yet Thousands of Players Have No Resources.”??You can watch the presentation here.

7. PhD student Antoine Dupuy participated in the Battle Royale: Gaming and AI to the Top of the Tech World at the Pint of Science Festival in JJ Bowles in Limerick in May 2024, where he discussed computer games, the science behind them and how they affect you.?Antoine was also shortlisted for the Top 10 Annual Postgraduate Research Thesis in 3 and Picture This! Contest.?

8. PESS Marie Curie Research Fellow Jenna R. Lorusso was invited to speak with curriculum managers across Australia about policy-focused professional learning at their National Health and Physical Education Leaders Forum in Melbourne in November 2023.?Her presentation was in collaboration with Laura Alfrey from Monash University and David Aldous from Edith Cowan University.?

9. Our 4th Year Sport and Exercise Science students attended the 1st?Irish Sport and Exercise Sciences Association?Undergraduate Conference (hosted in PESS), along with students from various universities across Ireland, to present their final year research projects in May 2024.?