The CRT was delighted to hear that CRT student John O’Grady is a Fulbright award recipient!
On Friday, 14th June, 2024 the Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, and the Embassy of the United States of America in Dublin announced 21 Fulbright Irish Awardees for 2024-2025. Recipients were presented with Awards at a ceremony in Iveagh House last night.
The CRT are absolutely delighted for and very proud of CRT student John Francis O’Grady who was one of 21 Fulbright awardees in 2024.
Fulbright bilateral exchange programme has facilitated academic and cultural exchanges and strengthened Ireland-U.S. relations since 1957. The programme has a reputation for selecting exceptional candidates from across Ireland to study and work in disciplines ranging from health, science, technology and business to culture, the arts and the Irish language. Academics, professionals, students and scholars will research, study, teach and collaborate with experts at leading U.S. institutions. Their innovative research will have lasting impacts for society.
Irish awardees will serve as cultural ambassadors in the U.S. and share their knowledge, ideas and experience when they return home. Inspired by the mission and ethos of the Fulbright Commission, they will strengthen connections between the U.S. and Ireland and contribute to creating a global culture of understanding that is vital in today’s ever more polarised world.
John O’Grady holds a B.Agr.Sc in Animal Science from University College Dublin (UCD) and an M.Sc in Genomic Medicine from Trinity College Dublin. Currently, John is in the 3rd year of his PhD in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology at UCD. His work forms part of the SFI-CRT in Genomics Data Science PhD programme and focuses on integrative and comparative genomics of tuberculosis disease in humans and livestock. This project involves leveraging high-resolution genomic (DNA) and transcriptomic (RNA) data to understand the host response to mycobacterial infections that cause tuberculosis in humans and cattle. As a Fulbright-Teagasc Awardee at the Department of Biomedical Informatics in the University of Colorado Denver, John will leverage machine learning approaches and high-resolution bovine transcriptomics data to identify diagnostic biomarkers indicative of bovine tuberculosis disease under the guidance of Prof. Casey Greene who has extensive experience in the characterisation of transcriptional biomarkers for cancer.