Three researchers at NUI Galway have been given an important international award for work on natural resource conservation and environmental protection.
The award was accepted on behalf of the three at a recent conference in Las Vegas. It was attended by some 2,000 erosion-control professionals from around the world. The award is normally bestowed on an author or authors of a scientific paper which contributes most to advancing erosion-control knowledge.
Mr John Mulqueen, of Teagasc, who is based at NUI Galway, Mr Michael Rodgers and Mr Niall Marren, of the university's civil engineering department, won the award for a paper on the erosion of hill peat in western Ireland.
Their research was prompted by concerns over increasing stocks of sheep and the consequent erosion. The two-year field study involved an eight-hectare Leenane sub-catchment of the Erriff river on a Teagasc research farm at Glendavock, Co Mayo.