In the News..

University of Galway has appointed Professor Karena Yan as Dean of the J.E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics.    Professor Yan joins the University from Durham University Business School, where she served as Professor and Associate Dean, leading the Doctor of Business Administration programmes.    Commenting on her appointment, Professor Yan said: “I am honoured to be joining the University of Galway and to steward the J.E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics in service of our students, industry and communities in Ireland and beyond. Galway’s spirit is extraordinary – creative, welcoming, and outward-looking. Together we will grow our research power and visibility, deliver transformative education, and enrich the student experience in a thriving, globally connected community.”   Professor Yan succeeds Professor Jonathan Levie, who has served as an Interim Dean since January 2025.   Executive Dean of the College of Business, Public Policy and Law, Professor Alma McCarthy, said: “We are delighted that Professor Yan is joining University of Galway to lead J.E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics. Professor Yan brings extensive experience to the role having led significant international developments and partnerships in previous business school leadership roles. We are also grateful to Professor Jonathan Levie for his remarkable leadership and the depth of insight he brought to his role as Interim Dean throughout this transition.”   Professor Yan has extensive experience in research and academic leadership. Her research has been published in leading journals including Research Policy and Organization Studies and has been supported by major funding bodies such as the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Charles Wilson fund. At Durham University, she also served as Co-director of the Centre for Innovation and Technology Management and Chair of the Board of Examiners for the MSc Marketing programme.   She has advised the UK All Party Parliament Group’s report on the Metaverse and Web 3.0, and has been featured in The Economist, The Sunday Times and the BBC.  In addition to her role as School Dean, Professor Yan will serve as Established Professor of Innovation and Strategic Management, contributing to the School’s teaching and research initiatives.  Ends

A new international study led by University of Galway has found that entering menopause at an earlier age is associated with an increased risk of dementia. The research also showed that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) after menopause appears to be associated with a reduced risk of dementia. The findings have been published today in the Journal for Alzheimer’s Disease. The research team from University of Galway and Boston University carried out the study with 1,329 cognitively healthy women from The Framingham Heart Study - the world’s longest running longitudinal cohort study - to analyse the association between reproductive factors and markers of brain aging. It found: Entering menopause at an earlier age is associated with an increased risk of dementia. HRT after menopause appears to be associated with a reduced risk of dementia. Greater exposure to estrogen over the reproductive lifespan was associated with enhanced cognitive performance and larger brain volumes. Having more children, higher blood oestrogen levels and being older at the time of menopause were also associated with better cognitive test performance, specifically better visuospatial skills - the ability to perceive, analyse and mentally manipulate visual and spatial information. Professor Emer McGrath, lead author and Associate Professor in Medicine, College of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences, University of Galway, and Consultant Neurologist, Galway University Hospital, said: “Our study explored the association between reproductive and hormonal factors across a woman’s lifespan and risk of brain aging. We looked at neurocognitive and neuroimaging markers from MRI brain scans, as well as cognitive test performance, including tests of memory, reasoning skills and visuospatial skills. We also looked at the future risk of dementia in relation to these reproductive factors. “We found that entering menopause at an earlier age appears to be associated with an increased risk of dementia, while post-menopause hormone replacement therapy appears to be associated with a lower risk of dementia. Although our results suggest positive cognitive benefits of greater lifetime estrogen exposure, they do require further validation.” Women have a higher risk of dementia compared to men, with women accounting for almost two thirds of those living with Alzheimer’s disease. The research involved women from the Framingham Heart Study and investigated the age at the time of a woman’s first period; the age at onset of menopause; the duration of a woman’s reproductive lifespan; levels of oestrogen in the blood; and whether a woman used post-menopausal hormone replacement therapy or not. These factors were then related to performance on neurocognitive testing, signs of brain shrinkage on MRI scans and a woman’s future risk of developing dementia. Professor Emer McGrath said: “When we explored signs of brain ageing on MRI brain scans, we also found that having more children was associated with larger brain volumes, including in the areas we tend to see shrinkage in Alzheimer’s disease.” Despite its public health importance, our understanding of an association with sex related differences in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias significantly lags behind that in the cardiovascular field. While longer life expectancy in women may explain some of the higher risk in women, factors including reproductive health and hormonal levels in women may play an important role. The Framingham Heart Study is the longest running longitudinal cohort study worldwide. It started in 1948 with the recruitment of 5,200 adults from the town of Framingham in Massachusetts, Boston with approximately 15% of the participants of Irish ancestry. In 1971, the study recruited the children of the original Framingham cohort, along with their spouses, to form the Framingham Offspring cohort. This group was included in this study. Read the full study in the journal here: https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/13872877251372430 Ends

University of Galway is to host Ireland’s new supercomputer, following a collaboration agreement by the Government and the European Commission. The national high-performance computing system – CASPIr – will be operated by the University’s Irish Centre for High-End Computing (ICHEC), providing the research and innovation community across Ireland and Europe with significantly enhanced capacity to address challenges and opportunities in science and society such as climate, environment, health, AI and big data. CASPIr will be co-funded by the Department for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) as part of a five-year collaboration agreement. Professor David Burn, President of University of Galway, said: “The collaboration agreement for the new supercomputer CASPIr heralds a new era of research capability for Europe, and Ireland’s research community, and places University of Galway and our Irish Centre for High-End Computing at the helm of data driven study. I would like to thank Minister Lawless and his team in the Department for pursuing this investment and working with University of Galway to secure it. We can now look forward to the research community reaping the rewards of this next generation of supercomputing and data driven research as it drives University of Galway’s strategic focus on transformative data and AI to support interdisciplinary research addressing global challenges.” CASPIr follows on from the supercomputer Kay, which was commissioned in 2018. It is one of 31 supercomputers in Europe which are funded under the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking. It is planned to be in service in 2027. CASPIr takes its name from Computational Analysis and Simulation Platform for Ireland. ICHEC is hosted at University of Galway and funded by the Department of Further and Higher, Education, Research, Innovation and Science. It is Ireland's national centre for high-performance computing, providing e-infrastructure, services and expertise to the academic research community, industry and the public sector. Its high-performance computing services are made available to researchers based on a peer review process by an independent panel of scientists. Professor Lokesh Joshi, Vice-President Research and Innovation at University of Galway, said: “Leveraging supercomputing capabilities across the research and innovation domain is essential to realising solutions to pressing global issues and accelerating research impact. Today’s announcement will fuel and support the development of existing and new collaborative partnerships – regionally, nationally, and internationally.” Four key research themes have been identified as areas of focus for CASPir following go-live, including environment and climate; genomics; nano-materials; mobility. JC Desplat, Irish Centre for High-End Computing at University of Galway, said: “The signature of this Agreement with EuroHPC represents an important milestone for Ireland. It paves the way to the procurement of CASPIr, one of a new generation of supercomputers designed to execute sophisticated computer models known as ‘digital twins’, with broad domains of applications ranging from health and life sciences, to the search for new materials, mitigating the impact of climate change and improving mobility within our cities.” Dr Michael Nolan, Chair of the ICHEC Science Council which supports Ireland’s research community to access supercomputing, said: “CASPIr will enable the Irish research community to take leading roles in research consortia, international research programmes and attract industry investment that is built on the ability to integrate computational methods into R&D, alongside helping to deliver on government ambition.” Dr Sarah Guerin, Chair of the ICHEC Users Council and Associate Professor in Sustainable Energy Harvesting at University of Limerick, said: "This infrastructure will allow computational researchers to realise the full potential of our homegrown expertise and take on real global challenges. I am excited for people around Ireland to benefit from, among many others, the technological, economical and meteorological outputs that this will facilitate in universities and industry." For further information on the European Commission’s announcement on Ireland’s national supercomputer visit https://www.eurohpc-ju.europa.eu/way-open-building-eurohpc-world-class-supercomputer-ireland-2025-10-13_en Ends