RCPI History of Medicine Research Award
First of all, thanks to everyone who came to the Heritage Centre Lectures last Thursday and made the event such a success. It was fantastic to see so many people with an interest in the history of medicine in Ireland.
As part of the Heritage Centre Lectures, the inaugural RCPI History of Medicine Research Award was held. Researchers in the field of the history of medicine were invited to submit 800 word abstracts based on their recent research. The judging panel, comprising representatives from UCD, Trinity, Ulster University, the Wellcome Trust and RPCI, short listed four of the applicants to give a twenty minute presentation on their research at the Heritage Centre Lectures last Thursday.
The four shortlisted candidates were;
Jack Carter, '… that one of these little ones should perish': an analysis of the role of health in the provision of welfare in Miss Carr's Homes for Destitute Children, 1898-1902.
David Durnin, War and Medicine: Irish Medical Involvement in the First World War.
Dr Benjamin Hazard, 'A very necessarie instrumente': Irish physicians, apothecaries and surgeons in the Spanish Netherlands, 1586-1686.
Dr Ian Miller, Dietary knowledge and the public in Ireland, c.1845-1914.
The standard of all the presentations was exceptionally high and the judges faced a difficult decision. After some deliberation David Durnin was announced as the winner.
David Durnin is Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences doctoral scholar at the Centre for the History of Medicine in Ireland, at University College Dublin. His current research project explores the role of Irish Medical personnel in the First World War. It uncovers the extent of Irish medical participation in the conflict by analysing the migration patterns of Irish medical personnel during the course of the war. Drawing on various records, this study also explores Irish medical personnel's wartime experiences and the effect that wartime participation had on the development of their subsequent medical careers.