Larah Bruen recently received a prize for “Best Talk” at the Third Year Talks Programme in University College Dublin. This annual event brings together third year PhD students from UCD, Trinity College and Dublin Institute of Technology to present their research to their peers, with prizes sponsored by Eli-Lilly. Larah’s presentation, entitled “Broadening the Scope of HvADH2 from Haloferax volcanii by rational design and directed evolution” was a discussion on the modification of a halophilic ADH towards industrial substrates, funded by the Synthesis and Solid State Pharmaceutical Centre.