Seamus Martin, Smurfit professor of genetics at TCD. A graduate of NUI Maynooth, Prof Martin worked at University College London Medical School and the La Jolla institute for allergy and immunology in San Diego. Remaining in TCD, he will investigate how the body eliminates damaged cells.
Kingston Mills, director of the institute of immunology at NUI Maynooth. A graduate of TCD, Prof Mills will return to his alma mater to examine how the immune system protects against infectious agents with a view to developing medicines and vaccines.
Ken Wolfe, associate professor of genetics at TCD. A TCD graduate, he did post-doctoral work in Indiana University and returned to TCD in 1992. He will expand his research into evolving genomes and on whether "rules" govern a gene's location on a chromosome.
Micheal Coey, experimental physicist based at TCD. Prof Coey, a graduate of the universities of Cambridge and Manitoba, is author of several books on permanent magnets and magnetic glasses. He aims to establish a world-class research team in spin electronics at TCD.
Eugene Freuder, professor in the University of New Hampshire's department of computer science and director of its constraint computation centre. A graduate of Harvard and MIT, he will move to UCC to develop solutions to problems conventional computer programming techniques cannot handle.
John Lewis, director of the school of theoretical physics at Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, is a graduate of Queen's University Belfast. Prof Lewis was research lecturer at Christ Church and tutorial fellow in mathematics at Brasenose College Oxford. At Dublin Institute of Technology, he will investigate new techniques to optimise the resources of broadband communications networks.
Douglas James Leith, Royal Society Fellow at the University of Strathclyde. Dr Leith is a graduate of the University of Glasgow where he later was research fellow. He was a lecturer at the Victoria University of Technology, Melbourne, before going to Strathclyde. Moving to NUI Maynooth, Dr Leith will develop new methods for the analysis and design of modular, strongly interacting controlled systems.
Eoin O'Reilly, head of the department of physics at the University of Surrey since 1997. Born in Dublin in 1957, Prof O'Reilly is a graduate of TCD and the University of Cambridge. He worked at the University of Illinois and Dublin City University. Working at UCC, he will carry out research enabling the design of photonic devices which use light instead of electrons to communicate.
John Pethica, professor of materials science at Oxford and fellow of the Royal Society. A Cambridge graduate, he has been at Oxford since 1987 and has held visiting professor positions in a number of countries. In TCD, he will develop tools and materials for working at molecular level to create structures with a new molecular organisation.
Igor Vasilievich Shvets, physics lecturer at TCD. A graduate of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, he moved to the University of Basel in 1990. At TCD, he will investigate surfaces and interfaces of magnetic materials, leading to the development of magnetic devices that are smaller and faster than corresponding semi-conductor devices, enabling the design of more powerful computers.