ProfessorDominic Zerulla

Prof. Zerulla is the founding member and principal investigator of the UCD Plasmonics and Ultra-fast NanoOptics group since his arrival in October 2004. Previously, following his studies in Physics (HHUD) and a PhD in Physical Chemistry (Wilhelm Ostwald Institute, University of Leipzig, Germany) he was the leader of the Biophotonics group at the Heinrich-Heine-University in Duesseldorf, Germany, where he made his Habilitation in the same group that developed the first optical configuration for surface plasmon polariton excitation. Furthermore, he was a visiting Professor for Advanced Optics at the Astrakhan State University, Russia before he joined UCD in 2004, and Visiting Professor at the prestigious University of California at Berkeley in 2013. Dominic authored four book chapters, seven patents, more than 120 articles, reports & letters in the fields of Surface Science, Nano Optics, and Plasmonics and he has given more than 110 talks at international conferences and universities. He has been key investigator in the SFI Strategic Research Cluster on Solar Energy Conversion (SRC SEC) 2007 - 2012 and has been PI on a number of further SFI, Enterprise Ireland and international grants. In 2008, he was awarded with the first UCD EMPS Teaching Award.
Dominic is currently the Head of Physics at University College Dublin, is the founding member and principal investigator of the UCD Plasmonics and Ultra-fast NanoOptics group, and founder of two companies: PEARLabs Technologies Ltd (CRO 627217) and Liroptic Ltd (CRO 670391). Additionally, he has also been awarded with the prestigious SFI Future Innovator Special Prize in 05/2020, the Enterprise Ireland Big Ideas Public Choice Award in 11/2021, The UCD Innovator of the Year main award 2022, the Samsung Mobile Advanced Award in 2023, The Luminate (US) Global Tech Award and Investment Fund in 2024, The Research Ireland National Challenge Fund “Energy” (top 4) 2025, and the Luminate Public Choice Innovation Award 2025.