India’s Ambassador to Ireland visits UCC’s Tyndall National Institute

By Ellen O’Brien

“I am fascinated by the tremendous energy, vibrancy and passion in the researchers of Tyndall, driven by the ethos of making a difference to the larger community. The value-based partnership between India and Ireland has enormous opportunities in which the innovative spirit of Tyndall could be a big catalyst.”

Those were the words of Akhilesh Mishra, India’s Ambassador to Ireland on a recent visit to UCC’s Tyndall National Institute.

The ambassador visited Tyndall to promote research collaborations between Ireland and India.

The Tyndall Institute has a programme with India where they work with Indian institutions and researchers. They have Memorandums of Understanding in place with three Institutes in India which allows for a collaborative effort between the institutes to enable joint research projects, exchange of faculty and students, joint publications and reports and joint or co-supervision of PhD students.

During his visit Ambassador Mishra virtually met Prof. Shubhadeep Bhattacharjee who explained how his time as a postdoc researcher at Tyndall helped him to advance to his current faculty role at IIT Hyderabad.

The ambassador was also given a tour of the institute where he gained an insight into Tyndall’s research in the areas of biophontonics wearable sensors and agri-sensors.

Prof. Cian Ó Mathúna, Research Programme Director, Integrated Power and Energy Systems at Tyndall, said: “We were delighted to present to the Indian Ambassador the progress we have made in developing the Tyndall-India programme which we refer to as the TynDIA Programme.

“The programme has enabled the recruitment of graduate students and researchers from premier institutes across India and also welcomes visiting faculty throughout the year.

“The visit will, I believe, provide a unique opportunity to explore the scale-up of the activities between the two nations and build a larger research eco-system,” added Prof. Ó Mathúna.