Aisling Flanagan

Undergraduate Degree

BSc. (Hons) Forensic & Pharmaceutical Analysis, 2007

Work History

  • Feb 2006 - Sept 2006; GxP Systems, Galway (Validation Engineer/Technical Writer)
  • June 2007 - Sept 2007; GxP Systems, Galway (Validation Engineer/Technical Writer)
  • Oct 2007 - April 2008; Dynamac Corporation, Kennedy Space Center, Florida (Intern)
  • April 2009 - April 2010; Dynamac Corporation, Kennedy Space Center, Florida (Postgraduate)

Favourite Scientific Quote

“If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?” Albert Einstein

About Aisling

Born and raised in Limerick, Aisling began her undergraduate course in Pharmaceutical and Forensic Analysis (Level 8) in 2003 in Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT). Prior to completion, Aisling studied and trained in a diverse range of scientific theory and practice. This included undertaking a six-month work placement in Somerset, England, with Swallowfield PLC, a cosmetics manufacturer, where she was responsible for day-to-day microbial analysis, as well as a cleaning validation project of the manufacturing tanks. Aisling’s final year project was on the assessment of Solid Phase Extraction cartridges and a High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) column for the separation of cocaine metabolites; giving her an appreciation for chromatographic and separation techniques. Upon graduating in 2007, Aisling worked for GxP Systems, based in Boston Scientific in Galway, as a software validation engineer, giving her a solid, practical foundation in good documentation practices, and validation techniques. Aisling was then selected for a government-sponsored internship with Dynamac Corp., a NASA contractor, in the Space Life Sciences Lab (SLSL) in Kennedy Space Center, Florida. During this time, Aisling was exposed to areas of life science, including Advanced Life Support (ALS) research and plant science. Returning from this six-month internship, with the support of LIT and Dynamac Corp., Aisling was awarded an IRCSET (Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering & Technology) grant under the Enterprise Partnership Scheme; both IRCSET and Dynamac Corp. co-funding her postgraduate research project entitled; “The assessment of evolved volatile organic compounds as an indication of sphagnum health and biomolecular content”. As part of this research, Aisling again travelled to the SLSL, this time for one year, to improve her research skills, availing of the resources, both intellectual and equipment-based, available there. Having up-skilled in the areas of controlled environment growth chambers and hydroponic growing, Aisling is now continuing her research at the CELLS research centre. Aisling is hoping to graduate in 2012.