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‘Porridge with the Prof’ is a unique and exciting event for early-stage career delegates, allowing them to meet over an informal meal with professors and professionals from the scientific world.  The participants can share questions and ideas on the direction of their research, careers and future paths with a leading “Prof” in their field of interest.

The breakfast will take place on the 4th and 5th Floor Foyers from 8 am to 9 am on Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning. Each ‘Prof’ will be designated a table and there will be space for nine early-stage career delegates at each table. Below is a list of our participating ‘profs’ who have kindly taken time from their busy schedules, so take advantage of this great opportunity to meet them.

NOTE: REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED FOR PORRIDGE WITH THE PROF

Porridge with Prof: Thursday 8am – 9 am 

Joe Kilgannon

Fab24 Factory Manager, Intel Ireland

Joe Kilgannon is acting Factory Manager at Intel’s Fab 24 facility in Leixlip, Ireland. Fab 24 which, at >$4 billion invested, is one of Intel’s flagship facilities producing Intel’s leading edge products and is among the largest 300mm semiconductor manufacturing facilities in the World.

Joe joined Intel in 1991 and has held multiple positions in engineering and operations within the Technology and Manufacturing Group which included several multi-year assignments to Intel locations in the United States. His experience spans from large scale project initiation and capital justification, through start-up planning, facilities construction, equipment installation, process technology development (C4) and  transfer (C4 & 90/65nm Wet Etch), product ramp and sustaining excellence. Prior to Intel, Joe work with Apple for two years as Surface Mount Technology (SMT) Engineer.

Francesca Campolongo

Action Leader in the Econometrics and Applied Statistics Unit, Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen at the Joint Research Centre, Italy

Dr. Campolongo holds a PhD in mathematical modeling and sensitivity analysis. In 2002, she was awarded the prize of “Best JRC young scientist of the year”.  Dr. Campolongo is actively involved in the work of the European Commission to improve protection for bank account holders to create a safer and sounder financial system, and to prevent a future crisis. All the work done by Dr. Campolongo and colleagues took the form of a new European Directive on Deposit Guarantee Schemes.

Michael Depledge

Professor of Environment and Human Health, European Centre for Environment and Human Health

Professor Depledge completed a PhD in the toxicology of marine organisms, and his current research interests lie in three main areas, examining the biological responses of invertebrates to environmental stressors, examining the relationship between the environment and human health and thirdly, improving the mechanisms by which scientific evidence is taken up and used in policy making.

In 1996 he became the first Director of the Plymouth Environmental Research Centre. Michael served as the Chief Scientific Advisor of the UK Government’s Environment Agency from September 2002 to September 2006. Since 1990 he has been an expert advisor on marine pollution to the United Nations, an expert advisor on endocrine disruption to the World Health Organisation (2001). He is Chairman of the Science Advisory Committee on the Environment and Climate Change, of the European Commission in Brussels.

Anil Kokaram

Associate Professor Electronic Engineering, Trinity College, Founder of Sigmedia

Since 1998, Prof. Kokaram has led the Sigmedia Group, a company specialising in work with digital cinema and multimedia information retrieval and video over wireless. In 2007, Prof. Kokaram won an Oscar at the Scientific and Technical Academy Awards for his work on the Furnace tool set. Over the last decade, it’s been used on films such as The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The Matrix Trilogy, Batman Begins, Fantastic Four, King Kong, Casino Royale, Superman Returns, and X-Men 3 The Last Stand.

In 2011 a company he founded, Green Parrot Pictures, was acquired by Google. He is currently working as a Technical Lead in the Chrome Media Group at Google, California while continuing to hold his professorship in Trinity College.

Helga Nowotny

President of the European Research Council, Professor Emerita of Social Studies of Science

Prof. Nowotny holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Columbia University, NY. and a doctorate in jurisprudence from the University of Vienna. Her current host institution is the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF). She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Ludwig Maximilians University Munich and member of many other international Advisory Boards and selection committees. From 2005 – June 2011 she was Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the University of Vienna. Prof. Nowotny is also a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and long standing member the Academia Europaea and recipient of several prizes and awards.

Mark Ferguson

Director General, Science Foundation Ireland, Professor in Life Sciences

Mark Ferguson was appointed Professor at the University of Manchester in 1984, aged 28, when he was the youngest Professor in Britain.  He is the discoverer of scar free embryonic wound healing and temperature dependent sex determination in alligators and crocodiles. Prof. Ferguson is the recipient of numerous international awards for his research work, including the 2002 European Science Prize, is a member or Fellow of a number of learned Societies, and was made a “Commander of the British Empire” (CBE) by the Queen in 1999 for services to Health and Life Sciences.

Prof. Ferguson has a deep interest in translating scientific research findings into successful commercial entities. He founded and funded the Manchester Biosciences Incubator. Based on inventions and patents from his University research, he co –founded Renovo, a biotechnology company developing novel pharmaceutical therapies to prevent scarring and accelerate wound healing.

Margaret Murnane

Professor of Physics, University of Colorado

Prof. Margaret Murnane is a Fellow of JILA and a member of the Department of Physics at the University of Colorado. She received her B.S and M.S. degrees from University College Cork, and her Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1989, and joined the faculty of physics at Washington State University in 1990. In 1996, Professor Murnane moved to the University of Michigan, and in 1999 she moved to the University of Colorado. She runs a joint research group and laser company with her husband, Prof. H. Kapteyn. Prof. Murnane’s research interests have been in ultrafast optical and x-ray science. She is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the Optical Society of America. In 1997 she was awarded the Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award of the American Physical Society, in 2000 she was named a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellow, in 2004 she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, and in 2006 she was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Luke O’Neill

Professor of Biochemistry, Trinity College Dublin

Professor Luke O’Neill has emerged as a world leader through his pioneering work in the fields of immunology and inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis.  His internationally recognised research into the molecular basis for inflammatory and infectious diseases has won him numerous awards including Science Foundation Ireland’s inaugural SFI Researcher of the Year award and the RDS Irish Times Boyle Medal for Scientific Excellence, the Dan Perry Award for Immunology from McGill University and has been named as a Distinguished Lecturer at Oxford University.

Not only is he professor of biochemistry and the director of Trinity’s Biomedical Sciences Institute, Prof. O’Neill also co-founded a company called Opsona Therapeutics. It currently has a therapy in phase one trials, an antibody treatment to control Toll-like receptor 2, and many more are in the pipeline.

Alan Leshner

Professor of Psychology; Chief Executive Officer, American Association for the Advancement of Science; Executive Publisher, Science

Dr. Leshner received a Ph.D. degree in physiological psychology from Rutgers University.  He currently acts as Chief Executive Officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and Executive Publisher of the journal Science.

Prior to AAAS, Dr. Leshner held senior positions such as Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) from 1994-2001, and Deputy Director and Acting Director of the National Institute of Mental Health.

Dr. Leshner he also has been awarded six honorary Doctor of Science degrees. He is an elected fellow of AAAS, the National Academy of Public Administration, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and many other professional societies. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science and Vice-Chair of its governing Council. He was appointed to the National Science Board by President Bush in 2004 and reappointed by President Obama in 2011.

Porridge with Prof: Friday 8am – 9 am 

Louise Fresco

Professor at the University of Amsterdam specialising in the foundations of sustainable development in an international context

Professor Fresco’s exciting career has involved more than ten years of fieldwork in tropical countries, travels to over 80 countries, a PhD cum laude in tropical agriculture, chairs and lectureships at prestigious universities such as Wageningen, Uppsala, Louvain and Stanford. She held several leading positions within the FAO of the UN such as director-general for Agriculture. The permanent theme of her life is a strong commitment to international development, agriculture and food. Since 2011 she is also a member of the advisory council of The Hague Institute for Global Justice.

Brian David Johnson

The future is Brian David Johnson’s business. As a futurist at Intel Corporation, his charter is to develop an actionable vision for computing in 2020. His work is called “future casting”—using ethnographic field studies, technology research, trend data, and even science fiction to provide Intel with a pragmatic vision of consumers and computing. Along with reinventing TV, Johnson has been pioneering development in artificial intelligence, robotics, and using science fiction as a design tool. He speaks and writes extensively about future technologies in articles and scientific papers as well as science fiction short stories and novels (Science Fiction Prototyping: Designing the Future with Science Fiction, Screen Future: The Future of Entertainment Computing and the Devices we Love, Fake Plastic Love, and Nebulous Mechanisms: The Dr. Simon Egerton Stories). He has directed two feature films and is an illustrator and commissioned painter.

Eric Karsenti

Head of the Cell Biology and Biophysics Unit EMBL, Co-Director of Tara Oceans

Dr. Karsenti joined EMBL as a group leader in 1985. Over the following 20 years, he became one of the leading scientists that contributed to the understanding of the cell cycle and mitotic spindle. He also became head of the Cell Biology and Biophysics unit. In this Unit, he developed a new scientific culture, mixing group leaders trained in sophisticated imaging methods with biologists and physicists creating a new discipline that could be called Systemic Cell Biology.

In 2008-2009, Dr. Karsenti organised the TARA OCEANS expedition that sailed around the world, finishing in March 2012. This highly interesting scientific project brought together Physical Oceanographers with Marine Biologists, Imaging specialists, Molecular Biologists, Bio-Informaticians and Modelers. The aim of this expedition is to better understand plankton organism’s evolution and ecosystem.

Clive Cookson

Science Editor, The Financial Times, UK

Clive Cookson is science editor for the Financial Times, where he has also written about technology and the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. He won Glaxo science journalism prizes in 1994 and 1998 and in 2006 he became a Purdue University Science Journalism Laureate, a program that recognises outstanding global science communicators.

A chemistry graduate of Oxford University, Clive worked previously for the Times Higher Education Supplement and for BBC Radio as a science and medical correspondent. He serves on several boards including Science Media Centre in London, International Centre for Life in Newcastle, Academy of Medical Sciences communications group, Chemistry advisory committee at Southampton University and the advisory group for the Royal Society’s International Science Policy Centre.

Stephen Myers

Director of Accelerators and Technology, CERN

With 37 years of experience at CERN, in September 2008, Dr. Steve Myers was nominated by the CERN Council as Director of Accelerators and Technology and, effective January 2009, became responsible for the operation and exploitation of the whole CERN accelerator complex, including the Beams, Technology and Engineering departments, with particular emphasis on the LHC, and for the development of new projects and technologies.

He holds a PhD in Electrical and Electronic engineering, and has also been honoured with many awards, including honorary doctorates from the University of Geneva and Queen’s University Belfast, the IOP Duddell Medal in 2003, and was a recipient of the 2010 ACFA/IPAC ’10 Achievement Prize for outstanding work in the accelerator field. Dr. Myers has been elected a Fellow of both the IOP and the European Physical Society.

Renée Schroeder

Professor for RNA-biochemistry, University of Vienna

Since 2007, Renée Schroeder is a Professor for RNA-biochemistry and Head of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Vienna.  Her research is focussed on functional and structural aspects of non-coding RNAs and on the role and mechanism of proteins with RNA chaperone activity. Recently, using genomic SELEX in combination with deep sequencing, her group is screening whole genomes in search of RNA aptamers that control transcription. Prof. Schroeder is a recipient of the l’Oréal Unesco special award for women in science, the Eduard Buchner and Wittgenstein awards and is an EMBO member.

Philip Campbell

Editor-in-Chief, Nature, UK

Philip Campbell obtained a BSc in aeronautical engineering at Bristol, a MSc in astrophysics at Queen Mary and Westfield College, and a PhD in upper atmospheric physics at the University of Leicester. He has worked with the UK Office of Science and Technology, the European Commission and the US National Institutes of Health on issues relating to science and its impact in society.  His current areas of responsibility at Nature include: editorial content and management of the publication, and long-term quality of all Nature publications. He is a trustee of Cancer Research UK, a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (1979) and a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (1995). He has been awarded an honorary DSc by Leicester University and Bristol University.

Porridge with Prof: Saturday 8am – 9 am

Husseini Manji

Global Therapeutic Area Head for Neuroscience, Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals Group, USA

Dr. Manji has responsibility for bringing science and medicine together with global world-class capabilities in research and drug discovery, biomarkers, translational medicine, and disease area clinical development expertise. In addition, he leads a global team focused on combining innovative internal and external approaches to discover and develop new solutions for neurologic, psychiatric, and pain-related diseases with a high unmet need for effective treatments.

Dr. Manji received his B.S. and M.D. from the University of British Columbia, was was professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences at Wayne State University School of Medicine.  He is a recipient of numerous research awards, including the NIMH Director’s Career Award for Significant Scientific Achievement, the A. E. Bennett Award for Neuropsychiatric Research, the Ziskind-Somerfeld Award for Neuropsychiatric Research, the NARSAD Mood Disorders Prize, the Mogens Schou Distinguished Research Award to name but a few.

Dr. Manji is also a scientific advisor to the One Mind campaign, a public-private partnership that seeks to develop the United States’ first 10-year plan for research in neuroscience. He also recently was named to the Board of the International Neuroethics Society.

Anne Glover

Chief Scientific Adviser to the President of the European Commission

 Professor Glover was Chief Scientific Adviser for Scotland from 2006-11 and from January 2012, Anne joined the European Commission as Chief Scientific Adviser to the President. Anne holds a Personal Chair of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland and her current research focuses on the development and application of whole cell biosensors for environmental monitoring and investigating how organisms respond to stress at a cellular level.

She is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Society of Biology, Royal Society of Arts and the American Academy of Microbiology. Prof. Glover was recognised in March 2008 as a Woman of Outstanding Achievement in the UK and was awarded a CBE for services to Environmental Science in the Queen’s New Years Honours list 2009.

Sir Peter Gluckman

Professor of Paediatric and Perinatal Biology, Chief Science Advisor to the Prime Minister, New Zealand

Professor Peter Gluckman’s research focuses on what gives us a healthy start to life: understanding how a baby’s environment between conception and birth determines its childhood development and life-long health.

Sir Peter’s research has won him numerous awards including Fellowship of the Commonwealth’s most prestigious scientific organisation, The Royal Society (London), New Zealand’s top science award, the Rutherford Medal, the Nuffield medal from the Royal Society of Medicine (UK) and was honoured by the Queen in 1997 with the Award of Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, and most recently, 2011, the inaugural Callaghan Medal for outstanding contribution to science communication. In 2009 Sir Peter was appointed as the inaugural Chief Science Advisor to the Prime Minister, and is responsible for providing independent advice to the Prime Minister on scientific matters.

David Nutt

Professor and Director of Neuropsychopharmacology, Imperial College London

Professor Nutt was appointed to the Edmond J Safra Chair of Neuropsychopharmacology Imperial College London in 2008. Here they carry out pioneering research into neuro-psychiatric disorders merging pharmacological approaches with state-of-the-art imaging techniques. The particular emphasis is on brain disorders such as addiction dementia schizophrenia and affective disorders.

Professor Nutt is a global expert on neuroscience and has devoted his career to the development of responses to the health problems associated with addiction, anxiety, and other psychiatric diseases. His current research focuses predominantly on the brain circuits and receptors involved in addiction and in the discovery of new treatments. In addition, he is a practising psychiatrist, the Editor of the Journal of Psychopharmacology, advisor to the British National Formulary, a Past-President of the British Association of Psychopharmacology (BAP), and a former Chairman of the United Kingdom’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. He has recently set up in the UK a new independent scientific group to assess drug harms: the ISCD.

Lars Steinmetz

Joint Head of Unit and Senior Scientist, EMBL, Germany

Dr. Steinmetz is one of the world’s leading scientists at the forefront of genetics and genomics research. At the age of 27, he started his own research group at EMBL. Since 2009, Dr. Steinmetz has served as co-chair of the Genome Biology Unit; he also co-directs the Centre for High-Throughput Functional Genomics at EMBL.

In parallel, he leads a focused research team at the Stanford Genome Technology Centre in the USA. Furthermore, he is a consultant, collaborator, and scientific advisor for several major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, advising in the areas of genetic diagnostics and personalized medicine.

Julie McEnery

Fermi Project Scientist and Astrophysicist NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Adjunct Professor of Physics

Active galaxies and gamma-ray bursts are Dr. McEnery’s main science interests, but she also explores interesting topics in other areas.  She was named one of Fermi’s deputy project scientists in 2005, providing scientific guidance and information to mission staff, working with all elements of the mission. These efforts will maximize scientific return from the observatory. She is involved in all Large Area Telescope (LAT) science topics, as well as with team science activities such as low-level simulations, analysis development, and publication planning.

Dr. McEnery is also a member of several organizations and instrument teams, including the American Physical Society, the American Astronomical Society, the Milagro Collaboration, and the VERITAS Collaboration.

Raomal Perera

Strategic Consultant, ThousandSeeds

Perera has over 30 years of experience in the IT, communications and related technology industries. He is also a serial entrepreneur, the co-founder of two technology companies; Network365/Valista and ISOCOR; Network365 was acquired by US company iPin and formed Valista in 2003. Valista was acquired by Aepona in 2009. ISOCOR was listed on NASDAQ in 1996 and subsequently acquired by Critical Path (>$450m) in 1999. Perera won the Irish Software Association’s (ISA) Outstanding Software Achievement Award in 2003. He was also a finalist in the Ernst & Young ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ awards and he was one of 40 entrepreneurs worldwide chosen to join as a technology pioneer the prestigious World Economic Forum (WEF); which provides a collaborative framework for world leaders to address global issues.

He is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Entrepreneurship Department at Insead, one of the top 5 business colleges in the world.  He lectures on fund raising and entrepreneurial field studies, and mentors students on their entrepreneurial ventures and aspirations.