Fulbright Scholarship awarded to LIT PhD student
Minister Charlie Flanagan of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Mr Reece Smyth, Chargé d’affaires of the US Embassy in Ireland, announced 38 new Fulbright Irish Awardees at Iveagh House recently. Recipients include students, academics and professionals from 15 HEIs across Ireland and Europe. These Awardees will go to top US institutions to study and collaborate with experts in their field.
This year, the Fulbright Program celebrates 60 years of educational and cultural exchange between Ireland and the US. Since 1957, the Program has provided Irish and European citizens with the opportunity to study, research, or lecture in America, and supported US citizens to do the same in Ireland. The Program is now established in over 160 countries globally.
Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT) PhD student and Irish immigrant Jaswinder Kaur has been awarded the Fulbright scholarship. Jaswinder Kaur, from the Department of Applied Science, is a PhD candidate with the Shannon Applied Biotechnology Centre at LIT. As a Fulbright-Teagasc Awardee, she will be based at Michigan State University, investigating the use of genome sequences of fungi and identifying crucial genes responsible for the production of putative enzymes for industrial applications.
“Ireland has an ideal climate for the growth of varied fungi,” says Kaur. “For my research for my PhD, I have collected mushrooms and fungi from Irish habitats and created a biobank. Selected fungi from this biobank have been screened for various bioactivities. The possible benefits of this research range from medicinal (drug creation) to industrial applications for fossil fuel replacement.” While in Michigan, Kaur plans to advance the scientific paradigm of fungal biology and transfer knowledge in terms of database generation and genome sequencing. Kaur also plans to use the opportunity to share her positive immigration story, while advancing her research in fungal biology.
She says: “I hope to use my Fulbright experience as a platform, not just for excellence in science, but as an axiom for creating a suitable discourse for shared experiences of immigration and, more specifically, the impact of social movement on a personal level.”
President of LIT, Professor Vincent Cunnane says: “Jaswinder Kaur is representative of a new and exciting Ireland whose citizens or their parents may not have been born here, but who make this country their home, and go on to represent it with pride across the world. “We are so proud to have played a part in Jaswinder’s academic achievements to date, and look forward to the even greater success we know awaits her.”