Irish Visitor Awards

Fourteen scientists from abroad have been invited to Ireland for research stays. The new annual E.T.S. Walton Visitor Awards, named for Ireland’s 1951 Nobel laureate in physics, were created by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI). Announcing the awards on 30 January, Mary Harney, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, said, “In making these awards Ireland is not only recognizing these outstanding scientists, we are also building links with institutions across the world of international science.”

The awards are to scientists in SFI’s chosen niche investment areas of information and communications technology and biotechnology (see Physics Today, April 2002, page 26 ). The awards total €1.7 million (roughly $1.8 million), with recipients getting up to €200 000 each to cover their relocation, research, conference attendance, and stipends for stays in Ireland of 3 to 12 months.

The inaugural E. T. S. Walton visitors in physics-related fields are Vladimir Buzek of the Institute of Physics in Slovakia, who will spend time at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth; Michael Carroll of Rice University (NUI, Galway); Christopher Fuchs of Lucent Technologies’ Bell Labs (Dublin Institute of Technology); Atsuo Fukuda of Shinshu University, Japan (Trinity College Dublin); Mary Beth Ruskai of the University of Massachusetts at Lowell (DIT); and Stafford Withington of Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, UK (NUI, Maynooth).