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Many Congratulations to Mei Li on receiving her doctoral degree. Mei was co-supervised by Dr David McNulty and Prof Kevin M. Ryan.

PRESENTATION BY

Dr Gerard Higgins

Institute for High Energy Physics, Austrian Academy of Sciences Austria

PRESENTATION TITLE

Towards Quantum Tests and Dark Matter Searches with Magnetically Levitated Superconductors

WHEN AND WHERE

Thursday, 18 September 2025 at 1pm, MSG-024/025, Bernal Institute

ABSTRACT

Magnetically levitated superconductors make an excellent platform for ultraprecise inertial sensing and for probing quantum physics in unexplored macroscopic regimes. The superconductor motion can be precisely read out using superconducting quantum circuits, and the motion can be highly isolated from environmental noise through operation in ultrahigh vacuum, at millikelvin temperatures, within magnetically shielded environments.

In this presentation, Gerard will describe his group's progress in developing this platform, their plans to use it to hunt for dark matter in the lab, and its potential for probing the interface of quantum physics and gravity.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Gerard Higgins hails from County Down. He received his BSc and MSc from the University of Cambridge. During his PhD and first postdoc in Innsbruck and Stockholm, he developed a new platform for quantum computing and simulation. For the past five years he has been developing systems of levitated superconductors, in Gothenburg and Vienna. He recently started his own ERC-funded research group in

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION 

Please contact ning.liu@ul.ie

Extracts from the recent Bernal Institute Newsletter where David, Krittish and Robert were mentioned can be seen below

It's been a busy and exciting week for Bernal researchers in the School of Physics.

Firstly, we spotlight Professor Robert Lynch who was recently featured in the Irish Examiner, while Bernal researchers David O'Brien and Dr. Kittish Roy took home best presentation awards at national and international events, respectively. 

Bernal Member in the Spotlight:

Professor Robert Lynch

We're delighted to spotlight Professor Robert Lynch, a valued member of the Bernal Institute, whose expertise was recently featured in the Irish Examiner article titled "Vital infrastructure or storing up trouble? Debate over battery farms continues to rage." Professor Lynch, stresses that large-scale battery storage is essential to Ireland's renewable energy future.

PRESENTATION BY

Professor Michael Monaghan

School of Engineering, Trinity College Dublin

PRESENTATION TITLE

Bioelectricity in Tissue Engineering: The Role of Electrical Stimulation and Electroconductive Biomaterials in Macrophage Function and Spinal Cord Therapeutics

WHEN AND WHERE

Thursday, 6 November 2025 at 12 noon, MSG-024/025, Bernal Institute.

ABSTRACT

Bioelectricity pervades through each and every tissue in our bodies and immune cells- in particular macrophages, are no exception. In this presentation, Michael will outline work in his group whereby they have pin-pointed a therapeutic potential of electric field stimulation in modulating human blood-derived macrophage behaviour towards a regenerative endpoint 'electroceutical' therapy if you will.

Looking in parallel with human blood-derived macrophages towards iPSC-derived resident macrophages, the Monaghan group's work unveils an important and critical role of resident macrophage presence in in vitro cardiac organoids and the unique improvement they yield in engineered heart tissue models. Finally, this presentation turns to macrophage metabolism as a druggable target which can be mediated directly by biomaterials and electric fields in the context of spinal cord injury, and the application of non-invasive imaging to classify their phenotype.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Michael Monaghan is Professor in Biomedical Engineering at Trinity College Dublin. His group's primary research areas are in electroconductive biomaterials, cardiac tissue regeneration, innate immunology, and real-time imaging of extracellular matrix components and metabolism in differentiation and disease. He leads several interdisciplinary projects ranging from immunometabolism, evaluation of fibrosis, and induced pluripotent stem cell derivitisation of cardiac organoids and resident immune cell populations. His expertise and knowledge of FLIM microscopy has been recognised through publication of studies in several internationally renowned journals and awarding of a Horizon Europe MSCA-doctoral network (2021) based on FLIM excellence where he is the lead coordinator. Most recently, he is the 2023 recipient of the TERMIS Robert Brown Early Career Investigator Award (2023), a European Research Council Consolidator Awardee (PiezoMac, 2023) and a Research Ireland Frontier for the Future Laureate (BrillFLIM, 2024). Recently (2025), he established the first BioBrillouin microscope in Ireland and the first commercial system in the world to non-invasively profile cellular viscoelasticity.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

Please email tofail.syed@ul.ie