Prof. Denis Dowling is a Director of the I-Form Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre and a full professor at University College Dublin (UCD), where he has published over 220 peer-reviewed journal papers. Denis has nine company licences, for technology which he developed. There have also been two spin-out companies directly associated with his research group - PlasmaBound and Infraprint. His extensive work with industry was recognised in 2012 when he was the recipient of the UCD Innovation Award. Denis was also the recipient of the Institute for Materials Finishing (IMF) gold medal in 2013. He is only the 15th recipient of this, the Institute's highest award, in its 88-year history - www.materialsfinishing.org.

Prior to taking up an academic position, Denis worked on both company development and innovation activities with the Irish State industry development agency Enterprise Ireland. In addition to materials investigation and research in conjunction with companies, Denis also carried out extensive work on company mentoring, assisting them to develop their R&D programmes.