Eleanor McAuley was determined to take a degree with a science content and found her niche when she hit on nutrition studies at the University of Ulster’s Coleraine campus.

Eleanor, who is from Portrush, did a placement year in the University of Alabama and was able to use knowledge gleaned there to gain a diploma that accompanies the BSc Hons Human Nutrition, which she receives today at a graduation ceremony in Derry’s Millennium Forum.

Studying the degree course has brought home to her the urgent need for people to be aware of need for proper nutrition and diet. “It’s especially important in the case of children, given the problem of child obesity and diseases that can spring from that.”

Eleanor studied podiatry in her first university year at the University’s Jordanstown campus, but decided she wanted a change. Then one of her lecturers pointed her towards human nutrition. “I decided that was for me because it’s the kind of science-linked degree that gives you a really wide scope in choice of job and career. It could take you into further teaching or the food industry or pharmaceuticals,” she explained.

“The course was great. I’d be taking one module about metabolism one moment and then next I’d be assessing dietary habits or studying a module on biochemistry or management. It was very varied. And Coleraine was a really friendly campus,” said Eleanor.

Working at the Department of Nutrition Science at Birmingham, in Alabama, USA, was fantastic, she said.  It gave her a first-time taste of what it’s like to work abroad and she gained valuable hands-on laboratory experience in areas of physiology and metabolism research and study.

While there she completed a research paper related to childhood disease risk factors which has been submitted for publication in a leading US nutritional journal.

And the US experience confirmed her desire to stay in the field of research. “While I was in America I was able to do so some travelling and it was great experiencing a different way of life. But what I want to do now is stay here. In the New Year I start work on a PhD through the Northern Ireland Centre for Food and Health at Coleraine. My research will be about whether intake of Vitamin E might cut the risk of heart disease among smokers.”

Winter Graduations 2004

For further information, please contact:

David Young
Telephone: 028 90366074
Email: David Young