card, mug and calculator
This is a Thank You card I received after doing a school visit to my eldest daughter’s class in school when she was about 6 or 7, over 15 years ago
Objects
wimbledon queue card
This is a Queue Card from 2015 from my first trip with my first Godson and nephew Aaron Byrnes. Shortly after returning I was diagnosed with cancer. The goal was to return when recovered. We eventually returned in 2018 following a lucky lottery selection through the Wimbledon draw.
marvel comic and petri dish
My introduction to the world of science fiction was through US comics. This is a Marvel Fantastic Four comic from 1977. In this issue Reed Richards, the scientist of the Fantastic Four, is possessed by Molecule Man!
tell me why and gel plate
Still More Tell Me Why was the third in a series of Tell Me Why books published in the 1970s. I loved this book and read it endlessly as a child.
small vial and telescope
This small unimportant looking tube is the vial that contained the first isolate of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, imported to Ireland for research purposes.
magnifying glass and stone
All my personal and research items are small but under the magnifying glass
(microscope in the case of my research) we can discover amazing detail! For my
research the ability to visually increase the size of the structures I am studying
is absolutely essential.
bioreactor & dissection kit
I “inherited” this dissection kit when I joined Finian Martin’s lab almost 20 years ago. It used to belong to Eileen Furlong, who is now a hugely successful scientist and Head of the Genome Biology Unit at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory. I also seem to have inherited her love of cell fate
cork and biopsy needle
This is the cork from the champagne that was opened when I got my PhD viva. My mentor stuck the silver coin in it, for luck I think…. In hindsight I have been lucky, in that I have enjoyed most opportunities during my career.
clay tile and spirit level
The square tile of fired clay with a sculpted dendritic melanocyte in blue glass was a gift from one of my first PhD students, Dr Sobia Kauser (Bradford, GB); the work of her own hands.
key and scribbled drawing
Here’s a key from when I was a pale skinny undergraduate student. I was given it by the professor in the department I joined, to allow me to come and go at will.
