Historic double for research couple at UCC

A HUSBAND and wife research team made history at a college conferring ceremony yesterday.

Dr Catherine Stanton and her husband, Professor Paul Ross, became the first couple to be conferred simultaneously with a Doctorate of Science (DSc) from the National University of Ireland (NUI).

It is the highest academic honour awarded by the NUI for consistent excellence in scientific research in a specific area.

Catherine and Paul, who live in Kilworth, work at the Teagasc Food Research Centre in Moorepark, Fermoy, where they conduct research into how gut bacteria and new food products like pro- and pre-biotics affect human health.

They have very strong research ties with University College Cork (UCC), where they first met as students, and between them they have published more than 300 scientific papers.

Their proud children, Stephen, 14, and Fiona, 11, looked on as they were honoured yesterday.

“It is a great honour for us,” said a delighted Paul. “We are natural-born collaborators and this award is recognition of the collective effort of a lot of people.”

They were among more than 90 postgraduate and postdoctoral students conferred at UCC’s spring conferring ceremony.

Forfás chief executive Martin Cronin delivered the keynote conferring address and advised students not to be overwhelmed by all the economic gloom.

“We achieved a superb period of export-led growth in the 1990s which brought us a diverse, modern, sophisticated enterprise base, and we have one of the best demographic profiles in Europe,” he said.

“What is ebbing away today is the unsustainable growth of more recent years, which was driven by unrealistically low interest rates and unrealistically high asset prices, particularly property prices. We still retain our modern enterprise base.”