AWARDS NIGHT 2010

The fifth annual awards night ceremony for the College, took place in the Fairways Hotel on Thursday night the 20th May. In attendance were over 100 students, their parents, teachers, members of the Board of Management and of course this year's Illustrious Alumni, Dr. Stephen Lynch.
Dr. Lynch attended the college between 1986 and 1991 and has been highly active in the academic field of physics ever since. After undergraduate studies in U.C.D. and postgraduate studies in T.C.D., Stephen moved to the world famous Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge where his work surrounded the development of far-infrared (terahertz) silicon-based vertical emission devices and gained him international recognition in this field. As a result of his achievements he was elected to Bye Fellowship of St. Edmund's College, Cambridge and within six months he was elected to a full fellowship and to the governing body.
In recent years Stephen has been working as a senior research fellow at the newly established London Centre for Nanotechnology. He is now in receipt of a one million pound research bursary from the British Government which allows him to concentrate exclusively on research without the weight of teaching responsibilities. His most recent breakthrough is in the technologically important field of quantum computing. As the individual transistors on computer microchips become smaller, we are finally reaching the limits of minaturisation. In order to keep up with the ever-increasing demand for computing speed and power, scientists will need to re-think the way computer microchips are designed. Stephen's work shows how the quantum nature of matter could be harnessed to make a completely new type of computer, a Quantum Computer!
Amongst the recipients of the awards on the night were Richard O'Hagan, Senior Student of the year and Cathal Grennan, who was the Junior Student of the Year. Conor McArdle was the recipient of the Lasallian Award for his outstanding contribution to school life in general and his work in fostering the Lasallian ethos in the school. The winner of the Best Leaving Cert results in 2009 was Friedrich Dunne who is currently studying at T.C.D., whilst the award for best Junior Cert results went to Kyle Moran. Sporting endeavour was also recognized on the night when Ciaran Byrne and Darren McMahon were awarded the Junior and the Senior Sportsperson of the Year respectively.
The final award was the Illustrious Alumni Award. This was accepted by the aforementioned Dr. Stephen Lynch who made special reference to his teachers, Ms. Therese Rooney, Mr. Peader Dunne, Mr. Jack Brannigan and the late Mr. Brendan McCooey as being great influences in his later research and teaching careers.