Hall of fame award for Cork stem cell scientist

Dolly the cloned sheep and the groundbreaking possibilities offered by human embryonic stem cells were what propelled a Corkman into an area of science that yesterday saw him presented with a hall of fame award at his alma mater.

Stephen Sullivan, chief scientific officer at the Irish Stem Cell Foundation, returned to Ashton School in Cork yesterday to receive the award from principal Adrian Landen.

The award is given annually to a past-pupil in recognition of outstanding achievement in any area — science or otherwise.

Mr Sullivan, who did his PhD in stem cells at the Roslin Institute in the lab which produced Dolly, became one of the first researchers in Europe to culture human embryonic stem cells, typically taken from excess embryos left over after IVF treatments. He was attracted to the possibilities offered by stem cell research as a tool to combat disease through essentially reprogramming cells in a lab to become other cells. His work took him to Harvard and Cambridge. He is now in Trinity in Dublin where he works on harnessing stem cells for drug screening and disease modelling.

Accepting his award yesterday, he said despite having worked at prestigious US universities Ashton was where he had his “strongest learning experience”.

His advice to students was to “enjoy learning and not only focus on exams”.

“The exams do not usually test for real-life skills such as working as a team, logical analysis or creativity. In the outside world, these skills are huge. There is an atmosphere of fear around the Leaving Cert that does not reflect all the options presented by a good education rather than exam marks.”

Stephen said students should “gravitate towards what they enjoy doing, but keep an open mind on all their subjects”. “I believe students who follow their true motivations tend to do better, as they enjoy what they do. Fun is a huge motivator. I enjoyed science at school and I followed it ever since.”

Mr Landen said Stephen “did best in classes where the teachers loved their topics and there were several science teachers at Ashton in love with science”. He said the basic rule was, if you love a subject, you’ll probably be good at it.

The award was given to Stephen “to recognise his many achievements and outstanding contributions to the world of science”.