chemistry

Róisín Owens

Róisín Owens is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Róisín Owens rather than just read about it. In short: Róisín Owens is a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge. Her research investigates new engineering technology for biological applications with a focus on organic bioelectronics, developing electroactive materials that can be used between physical transducers and soft biological tissues.

Key takeaways

Róisín Owens belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Róisín Owens to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Róisín Owens from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Róisín Owens is a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge. Her research investigates new engineering technology for biological applications with a focus on organic bioelectronics, developing electroactive materials that can be used between physical transducers and soft biological tissues.

Education and early life Owens is from Glasnevin in Dublin. She earned a bachelor's degree in Natural Sciences with a focus on Biochemistry at Trinity College, Dublin in 1998. She completed her PhD at the University of Southampton with a thesis, The BipA global regulator interacts with ribosomes.

Career and research She moved to Cornell University to work as a postdoctoral researcher on host-pathogen interactions of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the department of Microbiology and Immunology with David Russell. Owens worked at Agave BioSystems in New York between 2005 and 2007. She then joined the lab Moonsoo Jin, developing ICAM-1 of rhinovirus therapeutics. Owens won a Marie Curie Reintegration Grant. The project resulted in a novel biosensor for enteric pathways. In 2009 Owens joined Ecole des Mines de St. Etienne, where she was appointed to Professor and Head of Department in 2016. Owens began working in bioelectronics after a discussion with her husband, "I was a biologist specializing in infectious diseases, and he was an expert in physics and materials science ... this was how we came up with this new project together, combining biology and electronics". In 2014 she took a sabbatical at the University of Thessaloniki. She was the Principal Investigator (PI) for a major European Research Council grant, Exploitation of Organic Electrochemical Transistors for Use in Biological Ionsensing in 2010. In 2015 Owens won a €150,000 proof of concept grant from the European Research Council. In 2016 she won a European Research Council Consolidation grant. In 2017 Owens joined the University of Cambridge. She is Principal Editor for Biomaterials, MRS Communications. She serves on the advisory board of the Wiley-Blackwell Advanced BioSystems and Journal of Applied Polymer Science.

Awards and honours Owens won the Suffrage Science award in 2019, nominated by Rylie Green.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Róisín Owens

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Róisín Owens claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Róisín Owens before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Róisín Owens ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Róisín Owens

In research: Róisín Owens appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Róisín Owens in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Róisín Owens is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 21st-century Irish chemists, 21st-century Irish women scientists, Academics of the University of Cambridge, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Róisín Owens outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Róisín Owens in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Róisín Owens means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Róisín Owens out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Róisín Owens in simple terms?

Why does Róisín Owens matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Róisín Owens?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Róisín Owens.