Madam, - Dick Ahlstrom's report on Prof John McCanny's 2003 Boyle Medal Award and Bursary (The Irish Times, October 13th) is accompanied by a photograph whose caption explains that the professor's "latest project is a €49 million development of a technological business park in the old Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast".
This might give the impression that Harland and Wolff, which operates on 80 acres of land - the rest of the property is now known as Titanic Quarter - is no longer commercially active.
Harland and Wolff Heavy Industries is very active in a globally transformed shipbuilding industry. While it is currently pursuing new-build projects it is busy in the fields of ship design, ship repair and conversion and civil engineering.
Two bridges for Dublin's N7 project are almost complete; the Blackhall Place Bridge in Dublin, which opened this summer, and the rebuilt Ha'penny Bridge are all recent fruits of Harland and Wolff's fabrication sheds.
The company has reinvented itself as an advanced engineering services operation which will have many synergies with Prof McCanny's technology park. - Yours, etc.,
JORIS MINNE, Harland and Wolff Heavy Industries, Belfast 3.