cracking the code females scientists at ucd

Cracking The Code

The tagline for the prestigious L’Oréal-UNESCO Research Fellowships for Women in Science is “The World Needs Science ... Science Needs Women”, and both assertions are embodied in the remarkable achievements of Doctors Lydia Lynch (a recipient of one such Fellowship) Emma Teeling and Emmeline Hill. These extraordinary women have in common the influence of strong female role models in their early lives. Lynch admired her secondary school science teacher and, when Teeling and Hill were teenagers, both their mothers secured post-graduate degrees in psychology from UCD. Now these outstanding scientists are themselves admired, as they push the boundaries of our knowledge and play an important role in putting Ireland firmly on the international research map. And all three believe their university provides the supportive and progressive environment necessary for them to engage in their cutting-edge, internationally-lauded research, as Eleanor Fitzsimons finds out

DR EMMA TEELING

emma teeling and bat As a child Emma Teeling, never stopped asking questions. “I was fascinated by the natural world. Mum and Dad took me to a lecture about Haley’s Comet in Dunsink Observatory and I thought it was the most interesting thing I’d ever heard.” Dad is Dr John Teeling, founder and chairman of Cooley Distillery and fondly remembered by those former students of business administration he once lectured as a member of UCD’s Commerce faculty. “I’m the black sheep of the family,” laughs Teeling. “Both my brothers went into the business but I only ever wanted a career in science.” She put medicine first on her CAO form but was confronted with stark reality before the Leaving Cert. “On Christmas Eve, I found myself in casualty with my grandmother. I was horrified when I saw what being a doctor actually entailed.” Opting instead to study science in UCD, she is delighted that her pioneering research into the molecular evolution of sensory perception in bats now feeds directly back into medicine. Dr Teeling cites curiosity as a key driver: “In school, I’d finish my text books and then turn to Scientific American for more information.”

YOU CAN READ THE REST OF THIS STORY IN THE 2009/2010 ISSUE OF UCD Connections Magazine, OUT NOW
Click here to receive a copy



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