November 2010 NUI Galway Receives Two Undergraduate Awards at the 2010 Ceremony

Two NUI Galway students have won prizes at this year's Undergraduate Awards of Ireland and Northern Ireland Awards at the Royal Irish Academy. Rachel Carey from Headford, Co Galway and Anne Molloy from Ballynacally, Co Clare were presented with prizes in the Life Sciences and Language and Linguistics categories. Former President of Ireland Mary Robinson was guest of honour on the night. Rachel, a final-year BA International in Psychology student, was awarded the prize in the Life Sciences category for her essay entitled How should we treat time in our investigation of coordinated movement? Rachel's essay was one of over 1600 essays submitted to the awards this year. Speaking about Rachel's achievement, Dr Mark Elliott, Lecturer with the School of Psychology at NUI Galway, said: "Rachel is an exceptionally capable student who has researched a difficult assignment thoroughly and with excellence. In this respect she exemplifies the very high quality of psychology graduates from NUI Galway." Anne, a Bachelor of Arts graduate from NUI Galway, was announced the winner of the Languages and Linguistics category for her essay La langue bretonne: passage de la langue vernaculaire à la langue condamnée which deals with the changing sociological status of the Breton language. On congratulating Anne on her award, Dr Máire Áine Ní Mhainnín, supervisor of Anne's essay, said: "Anne is a gifted linguist and produced an excellent and thought-provoking essay on the decline of the Breton language." Founded in 2008, the Undergraduate Awards of Ireland and Northern Ireland aim to recognise and reward the island of Ireland's most innovative young knowledge creators, to catalyse the development of the brightest undergraduates, and to inspire all undergraduates to achieve. The awards are open to all final and penultimate year students enrolled in a degree course in any third level institution on the island of Ireland. -Ends-