Update from the Irish Section

Professor Lorraine Brennan, Secretary,

Irish Section

Since the last edition of the Gazette the Irish Section has welcomed Associate Professor Clare Corish as Chair of the section. I very much look forward to working with Clare in the coming years. On behalf of the Irish Section I would like to thank Professor Jayne Woodside for all her work and dedication to the section in previous years. Jayne will remain as a member of the committee for the next two years.

The Irish Section started 2017 with a very successful 26th Annual Irish Section Postgraduate Meeting in February. The Meeting was hosted by Dublin Institute of Technology and had 62 delegates registered with oral presentations from 21 postgraduate students. The standard of the presentations was excellent and it was a pleasure to see so many questions for the speakers from fellow postgraduate students. A further highlight of the meeting was the excellent presentations from the guest speakers who provided students with an insight to the opportunities after PhD life and a range of career and professional advice.

Over the recent months our Irish Section committee has held a number of Nutrition Society Undergraduate Events aimed at increasing awareness of the benefits of becoming a Nutrition Society member. These have been extremely successful and I would like to thank all those involved in hosting such events.

The Irish Section Summer Conference took place in June at Queens University Belfast. Dr Michelle McKinley and Professor Jayne Woodside did a great job in putting together a very exciting programme. I was delighted to attend and hear so many global experts discussing the very pertinent topic of ‘what governs what we eat’. My thanks go to all the organisers and local helpers for organising such a successful event.

Finally, we held our Annual Section Meeting during the Irish Section Conference on 22 June. Thank you for the members who attended. During the meeting, voting took place for the next Irish Section Student Representative. I am pleased to announce Aoife McNamara, PhD student, UCD Institute of Food and Health, as the new Student Representative. We are pleased to welcome Aoife and look forward to working with her.