Carlow footballer receives DCU's highest student award

Carlow footballer Jordan Morrissey has been presented with Dublin City University’s highest student award, both for his academic excellence and commitment and dedication to non-academic aspects of higher education. 

The Éire Óg sharp-shooter graduated from DCU on Friday with a first class MEng in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering. 

Jordan is the first of his family to embark upon third level education, through DCU Access, Ireland’s largest and first university-based Access Programme. 

Speaking at the presentation of the Chancellor’s Medal to Jordan in DCU on Friday, Executive Dean of DCU’s Faculty of Engineering and Computing Jennifer Bruton said that “Jordan’s academic record of top placement at graduation, both in the BEng in Biomedical Engineering and MEng in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, is evidence of the extraordinary potential of so many who may, ordinarily, be excluded from higher education.” 

This is not the first time his academic excellence has been rewarded, having received the Biomedical and Clinical Engineering Association of Ireland Student Researcher of the Year Award in 2020/21 and the Intel Academic Scholarship of 2021/22. 

His MEng Research Project entitled “Design and Fabrication of a Haptically Realistic Oncological Brain Tissue Phantom for Medical Imaging and Neurosurgical Training”, in collaboration with the Departments of Medical Physics and Neurology at Beaumont Hospital, is currently in review for potential publication due to its novel contribution to the field of brain tissue simulation for neurosurgical training. 

Not content with excellence in the classroom, Jordan is also a distinguished GAA sportsman and has been the captain, on different occasions, of the DCU Fresher, Sigerson, Éire Óg and Carlow Senior Footballers. He’s also a four-time Carlow Senior Football Champion; an Electric Ireland Sigerson All-Star; a Sigerson Cup Winner (2020), and an Electric Ireland Ryan Cup Winner (2022). He now passes on that experience by coaching the under-15 boys’ team at his local GAA club. 

Executive Dean Jennifer Bruton also described the Carlow man as “a true exemplar of ‘living our values’. Jordan is, without doubt, a very worthy recipient of the Chancellor’s medal. The School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, the Faculty of Engineering and Computing, and DCU wish him every success in his life, in his career and with his future endeavours.”