School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

News and Events

Dr Iain Larmour has won the Royal Irish Academy’s competition to find the most outstanding Irish PhD thesis of 2008 in the Chemical Sciences. This prestigious prize, sponsored by Eli-Lilly, was awarded for his work on highly water-repellent “superhydrophobic” materials which was supervised by Dr Steven Bell, director of the Innovative Molecular Materials group. Iain’s main achievement was finding a straightforward method to create these extraordinary materials. The simplicity of the process he developed has opened up a range of potential applications which range all the way from large scale marine engineering, where coating ships’ hulls will reduce drag and increase fuel efficiency, right through to their use in biomedical implants. Although Iain has now successfully completed his PhD, work continues both on the pure academic aspects of the materials and on commercialisation of the materials, funded through INI.

Link to full press report:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sciencetoday/2009/0716/1224250747204.html