Government of Ireland PhD Scholarship Award

The Irish Research Council are currently seeking applications for the Government of Ireland PhD Scholarship Award. The deadline for this is October 10^th 2024. Further information can be found at this website.

Any applicant for this award will need to identify a host supervisor and laboratory. If an application is successful then a 4 year PhD scholarship will be awarded that will commence on September 1 2025.

Professor Paul Murphy aims to identify one candidate with the potential to prepare a strong application for this award. If successful, the candidate will work in Professor Murphy’s laboratory at the University of Galway on a project topic of mutual interest.

Projects currently of interest to Prof Murphy group are one of the following:

• Sustainable approach to synthesis of bioactive carbohydrates
• Synthesis of glycomimetics with potential for antimicrobial resistance

Qualifications/Skills required:

• A BSc or MSc student will be supported if they have demonstrated excellent academic performance in Chemistry or a closely related subject where a broad range of Chemistry courses are taken.
• The candidate should have a great interest in research and the topic of interest
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, including good writing skills, are required as is the ability to work well within a team. The candidate will be expected to be able to contribute to significantly to preparing a competitive application.

To apply to be considered for support to prepare the application to the Irish Research Council:

To be considered for support from Professor Murphy for this scheme, then preliminary applications can be made by email no later than 24^th September 2024 to paul.v.murphy@universityofgalway.ie. The application email must contain ‘IRC PhD studentship 2024’ in the subject line.

In your application please include:

1. A personal statement including your motivation for wanting to join Professor Murphy’s laboratory and for applying for the IRC award.
2. A pdf copy of one example of your own independent written research work (e.g. BSc thesis, MSc thesis) in Chemistry or related topic
3. A full CV including the contact details of two referees. Include the list of any awards and evidence of excellent academic performance to date. Please detail any experience in synthetic chemistry.

Students will be preferred who can demonstrate significant academic achievement across a wide range of Chemistry courses in their academic career to date and experience of synthetic research in organic chemistry as well as a strong motivation to join Professor Murphy’s research group.