People

Prof. Sarah Gleeson

Centre Director

Professor Sarah A. Gleeson is Director of iCRAG, Research Ireland Professor at University College Dublin, and Full Professor in Sustainability Geoscience at the UCD School of Earth Sciences. Sarah has built globally recognised research programmes in Economic Geology, has published 104 peer reviewed journal and conference papers, and has won several prestigious awards. She has carried out research on provinces with world-class Zn and Cu deposits across world jurisdictions, for example, in Ireland, Germany, Australia, Spain, Portugal, Canada, and the USA. Throughout her career the main focus of her research has been on the genesis and detection of base metal mineral deposits in sedimentary basins. Professor Gleeson relocated to Ireland from Germany in 2025 having most recently held the position of the leader of the Inorganic and Isotope Geochemistry Section at GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam and a Professorship at Freie Universität, Berlin.

Prof. Murray W. Hitzman

Co-Principal Investigator

Murray W. Hitzman is Director of iCRAG and a Science Foundation Ireland Research Professor. Murray has B.A. degrees in geology and anthropology from Dartmouth College (1976), an M.S. in geology from University of Washington (1978), and a Ph.D. in geology from Stanford University (1983). He worked in the petroleum and minerals industries from 1976 to 1993 primarily doing mineral exploration worldwide and was largely responsible for Chevron Corporationʼs Lisheen Zn- Pb-Ag deposit discovery in Ireland (1990). Dr. Hitzman served in Washington, D.C. as a policy analyst in both the U.S. Senate for Senator Joseph Lieberman (1993-94) and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (1994-96). In 1996 he was named the Fogarty Professor in Economic Geology at the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) and served as head of the Department of Geology and Geological Engineering from 2002-07.

Prof. David Chew

Deputy Director

David Chew is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Geology, Trinity College Dublin and iCRAG Deputy Director. He studied geology at University College Dublin, obtaining his B.Sc. in 1996 and his Ph.D. in 2001. From 2003 – 2005 he was a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Geneva. He returned to Trinity College Dublin in late 2005 to take up a lectureship. He lectures in the field of structural geology and tectonics, while his research interests involve applying geochronology and thermochronology to a variety of problems in the geosciences. He has projects in the hydrocarbons spoke on the thermal history of Ireland and its offshore basins and in sedimentary provenance analysis.

Dr Audrey Morley

Deputy Director

My central research objective is to assess past changes in large-scale ocean-atmosphere climate dynamics during past warm climates to improve our understanding of future climate change. Specifically, I focus on the response of the North Atlantic Ocean and its role in controlling, propagating, and amplifying gradual climate forcings into abrupt climate change. I'm particularly interested in determining exactly how changes in atmospheric circulation patterns control the strength (temperature, salinity) of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) on multidecadal to millennial timescales during the Quaternary.

Prof. Chris Bean

Co-Principal Investigator

Prof. Chris Bean leads iCRAG’s geophysics research. His research area covers various aspects of seismology, with a focus on volcano processes and imagery in highly heterogeneous structures. Following completion of his PhD at the Dublin Institute for Advanced studies, Chris joined the UCD School of Geological Sciences in 1989. In 1993 he established the Geophysics Group and became coordinator of the BSc (Topical) degree in Geophysical Science in collaboration with the School of Physics.

Dr Conrad Childs

Co-Principal Investigator

Conrad Childs is a Lecturer in Structural Geology in the UCD School of Earth Sciences and a co-director of the Fault Analysis Group. His research interests focus on the geometry and evolution of faults and their impact on fluid flow in the sub-surface. Conrad’s main involvement in iCRAG is overseeing work on the structural evolution of the Irish offshore basins within the Earth Resources Challenge.

Prof. Peter Croot

Co-Principal Investigator

Prof. Croot is Professor of Earth and Ocean Sciences in the School of Natural Sciences in NUIG. Prof. Croot’s research interests include the development of analytical methods to determine trace metal speciation under ambient in situ conditions. This includes a variety of techniques from mass spectrometry, voltammetry and flow injection techniques utilising chemiluminescence or spectrofluorescence analysis.

Prof. Gerald Dickens

Co-Principal Investigator

Jerry Dickens is Professor Of Geology & Mineralogy in Trinity College Dublin and is a researcher in the iCRAG Earth System Change challenge into the history of the world’s oceans, with respect to the changing patterns of their geology, chemistry and biology.

Prof. Laurence Gill

Co-Principal Investigator

Prof. Gill is lead of iCRAG’s Connected Waters research. His research interests involve studying the fate and transport of both air and water-borne pollutants in the natural and built environment, as well as the development of passive treatment processes. Much of the work involves extensive field studies which are then used to develop mathematical models to gain further insight into the processes. Prior to joining at Trinity College in 1999, he spent several years working in the UK water industry on the design of water and wastewater treatment processes for urban populations.

Prof. Peter Haughton

Co-Principal Investigator

Prof. Haughton is lead of iCRAG's Energy Transition research. Peter is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin. After a year working in mineral exploration in the Irish Midlands, he took up a University of Glasgow Overseas Scholarship and obtained a PhD in 1986 for work on Old Red Sandstone conglomerates in the NE Midland Valley of Scotland. Subsequently he was appointed as a Britoil Research Fellow (1985-1988) and then a Royal Society of Edinburgh/BP Research Fellow (1988-1991), both at the University of Glasgow. From 1991 to 1996, he worked as a consultant in the oil industry, before returning to Dublin in 1996 to take up a lectureship at UCD. Peter was Editor-in-Chief of the journal Sedimentology from 2002-2006.

Dr Mike Long

Co-Principal Investigator

Mike Long is a civil engineer and holds BE (UCC), MEngSc (UCC) and PhD (UCD) degrees. Following graduation he spent 11 years in geotechnical engineering practice mainly with the British firm ARUP. Since 1996 he has been at UCD and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2006. He currently supervises 2 PhD and 2 MEngSc research students. He is also a visiting Professor at NTNU Trondheim, Norway. His research work mostly comprises the characterisation of natural soils, on soil structure interaction for deep basements and on shallow geothermal systems. Mike regularly acts as a consultant on general infrastructural engineering projects.

Prof. Tom Manzocchi

Co-Principal Investigator

A graduate of Imperial College (BSC, Geology, 1990), Tom spent three years in the oil industry before undertaking a PhD in reservoir geoengineering at Heriot-Watt University. Tom joined the Fault Analysis Group in Liverpool University in 1997, and re-located with the group to UCD in 2000. Tom is currently co-director of the Fault Analysis Group and a UCD Senior Lecturer. His principal research interests centre on the systematic quantitative description of geological structure (sedimentological and fault-related), and subsequent application of this description in modelling practice.

Prof. Frank McDermott

Co-Principal Investigator

Prof. Mc Dermott is a Principle Investigator leading research within the Earth System Change Challenge. His current research focuses on reconstructing the timing and character of late Pleistocene interstadials and the role of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) as a driver of climatic conditions in western Europe during the past two millennia. NAO variability is crucial in determining multiannual variations in the power output potential of windfarms in western Europe.

Prof. Jennifer Mc Elwain

Co-Principal Investigator

Jennifer (Jenny) McElwain holds the 1711 Chair of Botany at Trinity College Dublin's School of Natural Sciences. She is currently the Head of Botany within the School. Over the past 20 years her research and teaching have focused on the development and use of palaeobotanical methods (proxies) that use fossil plants to reconstruct the evolution of Earth's atmospheric composition and climate on multimillion year timescales. Her research team use both fossil plants and modern experimentation to investigate how fluctuations in atmospheric composition and climate have influenced plant evolution and ecology throughout Earth history. Her research programme has been successfully funded through both national and international grants and awards including Science Foundation Ireland, Irish Research Council, European Research Council, US National Science Foundation, National Geographic and Marie Curie.

Prof. Maria McNamara

Co-Principal Investigator

Prof. Maria McNamara is a palaeobiologist in the School of BEES at UCC. She has a PhD from UCD and did postdoctoral research there before working as a Geopark Geologist in what is now the Burren-Cliffs of Moher Global Geopark. She then then worked as a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Yale University (USA) and did further postdoctoral research at the University of Bristol, before taking up her appointment as Lecturer in Geology at UCC. Her research focuses on the preservation of soft tissues in the fossil record and how this provides unique insights into the biology of ancient animals. Her research is highly interdisciplinary and lies at the interface of geology, palaeontology, evolutionary biology, chemistry and applied physics.

Prof. Geertje Schuitema

Co-Principal Investigator

Geertje completed her PhD in Environmental Psychology from the University of Groningen (the Netherlands). Before joining UCD in 2014, she was a Research Fellow at the University of Aberdeen (UK, 2009 – 2011) and Aarhus University (Denmark, 2011 – 2014). Her research focuses on factors that explain (sustainable) consumer behaviour, including the adoption of new technologies and the public perception of environmental issues and risks. Moreover, I study how people can be encouraged to behave more sustainably, building mainly on psychological and marketing theories.

Dr Shane Tyrrell

Co-Principal Investigator

Dr Shane Tyrrell is a Co-Principal Investigator leading research in iCRAG's Energy Transition TPs of the Earth Resources Challenge. Working closely with the Geochemistry platform within the hub, his research is focussed in the area of sedimentary provenance, particularly 1) developing and testing new proxies for tracking sediment from “source to sink”; and 2) applying these techniques to solving economically relevant geological problems (e.g. links between sand sourcing, reservoir sandstone distribution and quality). Shane has been involved in diverse projects, from investigating large continental-scale rivers, through typing sources of ice rafted debris offshore Antarctica, to palaeodrainage reconstruction for basins offshore Ireland.

Prof. John Walsh

Co-Principal Investigator

Prof. Walsh is a Co-Principal Investigator with a research focus on the geometry and growth of faults, and on the impacts of faults and fractures on fluid flow. John is Professor of Structural Geology at UCD and co-director of the Fault Analysis Group in the School of Earth Sciences. He has published numerous papers in peer-reviewed journals, served on the editorial boards of five journals, including Geology and the Journal of Structural Geology, and acted as distinguished lecturer for the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE) and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG). In 2015 John became the first Irish Honorary Fellow of the Geological Society of London.

Prof. Andrew Wheeler

Co-Principal Investigator

Prof. Wheeler is co-lead of iCRAG’s Geomarine Environment research. Research activities include marine geology with an emphasis on benthic boundary layer sedimentary processes, offshore Quaternary geology and seabed mapping (SSS, MBES, ROVs). Prof. Wheeler has a special focus on the geology of deep-water coral carbonate mounds and continental margins (slides, canyons, contourites) as well as shelf-sea sediment transport processes and offshore.

Dr Gordon Bromley

Gordon Bromley's research at NUIG employs a primarily glacial-geologic approach and a Big Picture vantage to reconstruct past change, information we can then use to better understand the present and inform projections of the future. Currently, Gordon is leading investigations in Antarctica, the tropical Andes, and the British Isles.

Dr Silvia Caldararu

Funded Investigator

Silvia joined the Botany department in Trinity College Dublin in the summer of 2022 as an assistant professor. She studies how plants are affected by climate change and how this in turn impacts the world's carbon cycle and feeds back to the climate. She uses land surface models to understand current plant and ecosystem observations and make predictions about the future. Silvia completed her PhD at the University of Edinburgh in 2013, where she built a global model of leaf phenology. After that, she spent 2 years at Microsoft Research Cambridge in the Computational Ecology lab, looking at general models of crop growth. From 2015 to 2022 she was a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, where she contributed to the QUINCY model and started looking at ecosystem nutrient limitation and effects of elevated CO2 on plant physiology.

Prof. Quentin Crowley

Funded Investigator

Quentin Crowley is Associate Professor in Isotopes and the Environment at TCD. His research interests include geochemistry of the contemporary environment, radon as a natural hazard, magmatic and mineralising systems (particularly gold and porphyry deposits), detrital minerals in provenance studies, and biominerals as environmental proxies. Quentin is Director of the TCD Centre for the Environment, and Academic Lead for Climate-KIC at TCD.

Prof. Stephen Daly

Funded Investigator

Stephen Daly is Associate Professor of Petrology at UCD School of Earth Sciences. He is Director of the National Centre for Isotope Geochemistry at UCD and as such is one of the lead researchers of iCRAG's Geochemistry Platform. This supports the geochemical analytical requirements of iCRAG research across the Centre. Stephen’s research interests include the tectonic history of the lower crust, geochemical aspects of geothermal energy and the application of isotope geochemical methods to sedimentary provenance, igneous petrogenesis and the sources of base metal ores.

Dr Eve Daly

Funded Investigator

Dr Eve Daly, B. Sc. (Hons) Physics and PhD (Geophysics) is a lecturer in Earth and Ocean science at NUI, Galway with expertise in Geophysical remote sensing with both terrestrial and airborne datasets with applications in coastal zone management,catchment management, and archeology

Dr Shane Donohue

Funded Investigator

Shane Donohue is a Funded Investigator in the ICRAG geohazards spoke. Shane graduated from University College Dublin (UCD) with a PhD in 2006. He has held academic positions in the University of Bath and Queen’s University Belfast. He was appointed to the position of Associate Professor in University College Dublin in January 2018.

Shane’s research is concerned with understanding the properties of the ground and developing innovative ways of imaging the subsurface. He uses this information to better understand (1) the causes of landslides and predicting when they might move, (2) the properties of the seabed, to assist with the design of offshore renewable energy infrastructure and (3) the condition of geo-infrastructure slopes, such as flood defences as well as embankments and cuttings supporting transport networks.

Dr Kara English

Funded Investigator

Kara is currently Assistant Professor of Sedimentology and Lead of the Sustainable GeoEnergy Research Group within the UCD School of Earth Sciences. The contribution of geological applications in our energy future will be significant in terms of geological storage (carbon dioxide; hydrogen) as well as alternative energy sources such as geothermal energy. Kara's research interests include the challenges and solutions of the energy transition in Ireland and across Europe, as well as sedimentology, basin analysis, and integrated reservoir assessment. Previous research projects include establishing the Standard Stratigraphic Nomenclature Framework for Ireland’s Offshore Sedimentary Basins with the Department of Environment, Communications and Climate Action. Prior to academic and government roles, she worked in the petroleum industry as an exploration and development geologist.

Dr Niall English

Funded Investigator

Niall English obtained BE and PhD degrees in Chemical Engineering from University College Dublin in 2000 and 2003 - specialising in energy-conversion processes, gas engineering, electric fields, and simulations. During 2004-2007, Niall performed research on hydrates, energy storage, and pharmaceutical simulation at the US DOE and in industry. Niall commenced his academic career at UCD Chemical Engineering in 2007, where he is a professor since 2017. His interests encompass nanoscience (such as nano-bubbles), energy, and materials. He has a special interest in water, whether in bulk, at interfaces or in (nano-)confined systems. He founded two campus spin-out companies, BioSimulytics and Aqua-B. Prof. In recent years, computer simulations of hydrate structure and dynamical properties, as well as of hydrate nucleation and formation, have been carried out by various workers in the simulation community.

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Dr Robbie Goodhue

Funded Investigator

Robbie graduated from TCD Geology with a BA (1992), a PhD (1996) and has been a Senior Experimental Officer there since 2001. He teaches analytical techniques and organic petrology, and has widespread research interests which include stable isotopes, thermal maturity and clays. He is a member of the NSAI Aggregates Panel and specialises in analysis of building materials by various methods (XRD, XRF, optical petrography, SEM). In the last decade he has developed strong research links with the quarrying, geotechnical and building industry in Ireland.

Dr Claire Harnett

Funded Investigator

Claire joined the School of Earth Sciences in 2019 as an Assistant Professor. She previously earned her BSc in Geological Hazards from the University of Portsmouth, followed by her PhD in Volcanology from the University of Leeds. Claire's research now focusses primarily on numerical modelling of volcanic hazards, particularly instability of lava domes and flanks, as well as caldera subsidence. Claire's background is in rock mechanics, and so she is keenly interested in the intersection of volcanology with geotechnical engineering.

Dr Carla Harper

Funded Investigator

Carla joined the Trinity College Dublin Botany Department as an Assistant Professor of Environmental Science in 2020. She is a paleobotanist with a specialization in paleomycology, the study of fossil fungi. After she completed her Ph.D. at the University of Kansas on studying the diversity of Permian and Triassic fungi from Antarctica and she received an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to work in Munich, Germany at the Bavarian State Collection for Paleontology and Geology (BSPG) to study fungi from late Paleozoic ecosystems, including the world famous Rhynie chert from Scotland. Carla then had three postdoctoral positions with the US National Science Foundation (NSF) ZyGoLife, NSF Office of Polar Research Antarctica, and the German Research Foundation (DFG) at the BSPG, all focused on studying fossil fungi.

Dr Tiernan Henry

Funded Investigator

Tiernan Henry is a lead researcher in iCRAG's Connected Waters research. He has a BA (Mod) in Natural Sciences from TCD, an MSc in hydrogeology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and he completed his PhD (on the groundwater setting of the Tynagh Mine) at NUIG. He worked on US-EPA and USGS-funded projects in the US before returning to Ireland where he worked in groundwater consultancy for a number of years. He has been a lecturer in Earth and Ocean Sciences (at NUIG) since 2004. His research interests include work on the distribution of metals in groundwater in Ireland, interaction of seawater and groundwater in coastal karst systems, and use of multi-disciplinary approaches to solving and contextualising groundwater problems.

Dr Eoghan Holohan

Funded Investigator

Eoghan graduated from Trinity College Dublin (TCD) with a B.A. in Natural Science (2002), a Diploma in Statistics (2004), and a PhD in Geology (2008). He spent one year (2006-7) as an Assistant Lecturer in structural geology in University College Dublin (UCD), and then joined the Fault Analysis Group on a IRCSET-funded post-doctoral fellowship in 2007-2009. Eoghan then won an IRCSET-Marie Curie INSPIRE international mobility fellowship (2009-2012) that facilitated a collaborative research project based at both UCD and the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) in Potsdam, Germany. He subsequently took up a research scientist position at GFZ Potsdam (2012-2015), before re-joining UCD in 2016 as a College Lecturer in structural geology and tectonics. Since July 2017, Eoghan is an Associate Professor of Earth Sciences.

Dr. Sean Jordan

Funded Investigator

Dr. Seán Jordan is Associate Professor in Biogeochemistry and Astrobiology in the School of Chemical Sciences at Dublin City University. He is a leading researcher in the fields of geobiology, astrobiology, and the origins of life. As the Principal Investigator of the ProtoSigns Lab at DCU, he spearheads pioneering investigations into fundamental questions surrounding the emergence and evolution of life on Earth. He is currently a member of the DCU Life Sciences Institute (LSI) and the Origin of Life Early-career Network (OoLEN).

Seán obtained his BSc (Hons) in Environmental Science from DCU in 2009. Following this he gained practical experience as a research assistant in the National Centre for Sensor Research. In 2012, after a short time in Australia, he returned to DCU to complete his PhD in Biogeochemistry which was awarded in 2016.

Dr David Igoe

Funded Investigator

My research interests primarily relate to Geotechnical Engineering and Offshore Engineering for Renewable Energy. My research focuses on improving design methods for offshore foundations and soil-structure dynamics related to offshore structures. I am a member of the academic work group and was a key contributor to the Pile Stability Analysis (PISA) project, which won the prestigious British Geotechnical Association (BGA) Fleming Award and was recently recognised by the UK Carbon Trust as one of the 10 most high impact projects undertaken in the last 10 years by the Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA) program. I am currently Principal Investigator on 5 research projects on offshore structures funded by SEAI, SFI, IRC and Geological Survey Ireland.

Dr Jennifer Keenahan

Funded Investigator

Assistant Professor in Civil Engineering, UCD. Interested in the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics for the Built Environment, particularly wind analysis. Head of Teaching and Learning, completed Professional Diploma in Higher Education, Programme Director for Dual Columbia-UCD ME in Civil Engineering. Teaching focuses on building working relationships between engineers and architects. Consultant with Arup, Chartered Engineer with Engineers Ireland.

Dr Brian Kelleher

Funded Investigator

August 2005 to present; Lecturer, School of Chemical Sciences, DCU. Feb. 2004 to July 2005; Postdoc. with Dr Andre Simpson, Dept. of Physical and Environmental Sciences, University of Toronto. July 2002- Feb. 2004; Postdoctoral Researcher with Prof. William Kingery, Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, Mississippi State University. Feb. 2001-July 2002; Project Manager for an EPA (Ireland) funded research project 1997-2001: PhD. Dr Tom O'Dwyer, University of Limerick.

Carbon is essential for life and has many forms in nature. It cycles between air, water, soil, sediments and rocks and it is important to understand these processes if we are to use carbon wisely and predict change. Much of our work involves the investigation of carbon in chemical and biological forms and how it changes when going from one medium to the next. We study carbon in soil, water and coastal sediments. We also use our technical approaches to investigate subjects such as past environments on Earth.

Dr Sam Kelley

Funded Investigator

Sam joined the School of Earth Sciences in spring 2019 as a Lecturer/Assistant Professor in Quaternary Geology. Previously, he earned a BSc. in Geology from Dalhousie University in 2007, an MSc in Quaternary and Climate Studies in 2009 from the University of Maine, and a PhD from the State University of New York at Buffalo in Geology in 2014. Before joining the staff at UCD, Sam was a Post Doctoral Fellow and Lecturer at the University of Waterloo in Canada.

My research focuses on how the landscape changes. Specifically, I'm interested on how changes in climate are reflected in the landscape we see today. To examine the connection between past changes in climate and features in the landscape I use a mixture of geochemistry, mapping, and stratigraphy to examine what is preserved in the geologic record.

Dr Duygu Kiyan

Funded Investigator

Duygu Kiyan received a B.Sc. (2005) and an M.Sc. (2009) in geophysics from Istanbul Technical University in Turkey and a Ph.D. (2015) from the National University of Ireland, Galway and the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS). After obtaining her Ph.D., she has been carrying out Post-Doctoral research at DIAS. She is currently working on a project which aims to improve the performance of electromagnetic mining exploration in Ireland under support of Science Foundation of Ireland Industry Fellowship 2016.

Dr Zili Li

Funded Investigator

Dr Zili Li is an iCRAG Funded Investigator in the iCRAG Geohazards and Geotechnical Engineering research spoke. He graduated with a PhD in Geotechnical Engineering in 2015 from the University of Cambridge, UK. He has postdoctoral work experience in Colorado School of Mines, US and currently work as a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Geotechnical Engineering at University College Cork, Ireland. Since his employment at UCC in 2016, he has secured €2+ million research grant as the PI, including prestigious SFI Frontiers for the Future Programme (€612.8k total budget) (top-tier independent research grant). He is the chair of ISMLG 2023 (the 4th International Symposium of Machine Learning and Big Data in Geoscience), 29th August to 1st September 2023, University College Cork, Ireland https://ismlg2023.com.

Dr Ivan Lokmer

Funded Investigator

Ivan graduated in physics, specialising in geophysics from the Department of Geophysics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Croatia in 1997. For the next few years, he was working as a young researcher and professor's assistant at the same Department. His research in seismology, related to the estimation of the amplification parameters for the heterogeneous medium beneath the city of Zagreb by using synthetic seismograms, resulted in the degree of M.Sc in Geophysics in 2002. He also took part in a seismic anysotropy study. He has been with the School since February 2003 doing his PhD research in the area of volcano seismology (analysis and source inversions of long-period volcanic signals using numerical modelling of the waves propagation through a complex medium with topography).

Dr Aline Melo

Funded Investigator

Aline is a geologist and geophysicist passionate about closing the gap between geophysical tools and geological challenges. Her main research focus is on the integrated quantitative interpretation of multi-physics data for unveiling geology at depth by using inverse theory and machine learning. She has experience in 3D modeling and interpretation of magnetic, gravity, electrical, and electromagnetic methods for mineral exploration and geological mapping. Aline received a B.S. (2008) in geology from Universidade de Brasilia and in the same year joined the geophysics team of the mining company Vale S.A. In 2012, while working for Vale completed her M.Sc. degree in geophysics at Universidade de Brasilia.

Dr Gerard McCarthy

Funded Investigator

Gerard McCarthy is an oceanographer working in ICARUS (Irish Climate Research and Analysis Unit) in the Department of Geography at Maynooth University, where he leads a team of ten oceanographers and climate scientists.

His research interests are in the role of the ocean in climate, specialising in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), with particular interest in evolution of the AMOC in the 20th century. Since starting work in Maynooth in late 2017, he has worked on piecing together Ireland’s sea level change since the mid-19th century.

He leads the A4 project funded by the Marine Institute, is co-Investigator on EirOOS—an Irish ocean observing system, and a Funded Investigator on the SFI-funded iCRAG, and a member of the Línte na Farraige project. He leads a workpackage on the JPI Oceans and Climate project ROADMAP. He has been involved in a number of European Commission funded projects including the Thor, NACLIM, and Blue-Action.

Dr Tim McCarthy

Funded Investigator

Tim has more than twenty-five years experience in researching and developing innovative geospatial technologies gained in both Industry and Academic sectors, specialising in Earth Observation, Airborne & Terrestrial Mapping Systems, Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), Geospatial Web Services & Spatial Decision Support Platforms. iCRAG research will focus on designing, building and testing a Marine Earth Observation platform incorporating Satellite, Airborne and In-Situ sensor data streams. This platform will be used to investigate Slick Features (natural seepage, oil pollution, algal blooms etc).

Dr Bryan McCabe

Funded Investigator

Dr Bryan McCabe graduated with a first class Honours Degree (and Gold Medal) in Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering from Trinity College Dublin (TCD) in 1997. He was awarded his PhD entitled "The behaviour of pile groups in Belfast soft clay" by TCD in 2002. Bryan joined the Department of Civil Engineering at NUI Galway in 2001 and is now at Senior Lecturer level specialising in geotechnical engineering, and a former Head of Discipline (2014-2017). He is also a Chartered Engineer (2006) and Fellow (2014) of Engineers Ireland.

Bryan’s primary research interests lie in mainstream geotechnical engineering, and to date have included the behaviour of deep foundations, various means of improving weak/compressible soils (e.g. Vibro-Replacement stone columns and Dry Soil Mixing) to enable the use of shallow foundations and pipe-jacking/microtunnelling.

Dr Sean McClenaghan

Funded Investigator

Dr Seán McClenaghan is a funded investigator in the iCRAG Raw Materials spoke. Seán graduated with an MSc from the University of Ottawa and a PhD from the University of New Brunswick, before joining Trinity College Dublin in 2013 as an Assistant Professor. Research focuses on dissecting ore deposit systems through the application of bulk geochemical and advanced micro-analytical techniques. Much of this research has centred on the petrology of massive sulphide (Zn-Pb-Cu-Ag-Au) deposits in the Appalachians and Precambrian Canadian Shield of North America as well as carbonate hosted Zn-Pb deposits of the Irish Midlands.

Dr Daniel McCrum

Funded Investigator

Dr Daniel McCrum graduated in 2005 from Trinity College Dublin with a first class honours degree in Civil Engineering. He then moved to Scotland and completed an MSc in Structural Engineering and Mechanics from the University of Glasgow in 2006. His MSc scholarship was awarded by the Scottish Awards Agency Scholarship. He worked as a consulting structural engineer for a couple of years in Dublin prior to undertaking a PhD in Trinity College Dublin in 2008 under an Irish Research Council Scholarship. He then joined Queen's University Belfast as a lecturer in 2012. He joined UCD as an Assistant Professor in Structural Engineering in September 2017. He am a chartered structural engineer with the Institution of Structural Engineers (2016).

Dr Ciaran McNally

Funded Investigator

Dr Ciaran McNally is a civil engineer and obtained his PhD in 2001 for his work on alkali aggregate reaction in Irish concretes. Subsequent to that he joined the Centre for Materials and Manufacturing in UCD, where he worked as a research engineer, covering materials research, product development, process certification and technology transfer to industry. He is currently a lecturer in the School of Civil Engineering and in 2015 obtained a Professional Diploma in Teaching and Learning. To date Dr McNally has won over 2 million Euro in research funding. He has coordinated both European and national projects, including the 3.2 million Euro Marie Curie Initial Training Network TEAM (grant no 238648). His research covers a wide array of materials, including concrete, asphalt and FRP. In recent years he has extended this to include digital design and optimisation. To date, he has published over 100 peer reviewed papers.

Dr. Terry Morley

Funded Investigator

Terry is interested in interdisciplinary research on ecosystem functions and services, with particular interest in wetland ecology and conservation

After receiving his bachelors, he worked in the environmental consulting industry performing environmental site assessments and wetland and endangered species surveys. He also prepared and managed environmental impact assessments, Biological assessments and technical reports for the Federal Energy Regulatory Committee (FERC). His private industry experience also included a role as the primary ecological risk assessor for US EPA hazardous waste sites in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Dr Mark Coughlan

Funded Investigator Postdoctoral Researcher

Dr Mark Coughlan graduated with a BSc in Geology from University College Cork in 2009. He completed his PhD in Marine Geology in 2014, also from University College Cork, having spent a one-year placement at the MARUM Centre, University of Bremen. Following his PhD, Mark spent three years working for renewable energy developers Gaelectric as a Project Manager in their Offshore Wind Section and as a Project Geologist on the Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) project at Islandmagee. Since 2018, he has been at iCRAG, where he is currently a Funded Investigator.

Dr Pat Meere

Funded Investigator

Pat Meere graduated with a BSc in Geology from University College Galway in 1988 and went on to study for a PhD in structural geology at University College Cork, graduating in 1992. In 1992 he was awarded a Marie Curie Fellowship to carry out postdoctoral studies on Variscan vein systems at the University of Leeds. He returned to Ireland in 1995 and took up a lecturing position in the Department of Geology in 1999. His research adopts a multidisciplinary approach to looking at Irish Variscan deformation and has set him on a path that has led him to looking at many different aspects of this and related orogens.

Dr Julian Menuge

Funded Investigator

Julian Menuge is a Senior Lecturer in UCD School of Earth Sciences and is an iCRAG Funded Investigator. His research interests cover the geochemistry of ore deposits and within iCRAG include the origin and detection of Irish-type carbonate-hosted zinc-lead orebodies and the processes that lead to rare metal enrichment in pegmatites. These questions are tackled through a variety of imaging, geochemical and isotope geochemical methods which utilize many of the facilities of iCRAG's Geochemistry Platform, in collaboration with mining and mineral exploration companies including Boliden and Blackstairs Lithium as well as other researchers.

Dr Pádraig Murphy

Funded Investigator

Dr. Pádraig Murphy is Assistant Professor in Communications at Dublin City University and Chair of the MSc in Science and Health Communication programme.

While starting out as an environmental biotechnology graduate, Dr Murphy moved into science communication and Science and Technology Studies in the late nineties, as well as content management in e-learning. His teaching and research interests include science communication, and public engagement with science and technology.

Dr. Murphy leads the Celsius research cluster at DCU. His current research and writing has focused on deliberative and participatory dialogue models for biotechnology, nanotechnology, and sustainable technologies, and ways that society can anticipate communications and policy issues around emerging, disruptive technologies. He managed a citizens’ jury on the trialling of the GM potato in Ireland, the Irish GM Potato Community of Inquiry project, funded by the Irish Environmental Protection Agency.

Dr John Murray

Funded Investigator

I have strong interests in all aspects of Carboniferous sedimentology and palaeontology in both Ireland and further afield. The main fields of my research lie in carbonate sedimentology and palaeontology with a major focus on the Lower Carboniferous (Mississippian) of the Shannon Basin of southwest Ireland. I am particularly interested in the genesis and development of carbonate mud-mounds, microbialites and evaporites and their impacts on coeval biota.

Dr Jean O'Dwyer

Funded Investigator

Dr Jean O’Dwyer is lead of the iCRAG-GSI Environmental Geoscience PhD Programme, and a Lecturer in Environmental Science in the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences. Jean graduated with a PhD in Environmental Science from the University of Limerick in 2015; her research focuses on modelling the fate of water contaminants, largely in groundwater.

The quality of groundwater can be affected by numerous environmental and source-specific risk factors and is further complicated by the fact that contamination sources may come from multiple human or animal sources. As a result, the management of groundwater is extremely challenging. However, by combining our knowledge of the natural subsurface environment with targeted sampling regimes and statistical models, we can ‘predict’ areas which are at a greater risk of contamination and, thus, can help in facilitating targeted remediation and groundwater management strategies. This risk characterisation,

Dr Fiachra O'Loughlin

Funded Investigator

Fiachra is an Assistant Professor in the School of Civil Engineering, specialising in the area of Hydrology and Remote Sensing. He is the School’s Head of Postgraduate Studies and the Programme Director of the MEngSc in Water, Waste and Environmental Engineering. Prior to joining the School in 2016, Fiachra held research positions at the University of Bristol in both Civil Engineering and the School of Geographical Sciences on projects funded by the EPSRC and the Leverhulme Trust. Fiachra held a Senior Lecturer position at the University of the West of England, lecturing on hydrological modelling, flood risk and catchment and flood management. His research interests include the development and testing of hydrological and hydraulic models and the utilisation of remote sensing technologies to monitor our natural and built environment with the overall aim to improve our understanding of the underlying processes to help quantify past, current and future risks due to extreme weather events.

Dr Brian O'Reilly

Funded Investigator

Brian O’Reilly is a science graduate of UCD (1979) with a PhD in Geophysics from the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies/UCD (1990). Brian uses scientific principles, combined with common experience to know underlying Earth processes and evolution. One principal linkage mainly through Geophysics is to 4-D Ireland, including its vast offshore area; this is currently through the DIG [www.dig-geothermal.ie] and POROCLIM [www.poro-clim.ie] projects. Many are his research activities are relevant to resource potential, environmental issues, and the ethical consequences of "applied" research.

Dr Paddy Orr

Funded Investigator

Prior to joining the UCD School of Geological Sciences in 2003, Dr Patrick Orr was a lecturer in NUI Galway and before held postdoctoral positions at the Universities of Bristol and Oxford, NUI, Galway and a temporary lecturership at the University of Bristol.

Dr Aaron Potito

Funded Investigator

Aaron joined the School of Geography, Archaeology and Irish Studies at the University of Galway in 2006 and served as Head of School from 2013-2022. He previously held a research position at Ohio State University after completing his PhD at UCLA and his masters/BA at University of Colorado. His research focuses on the use of biological indicators in sedimentary records to reconstruct past environments. Current research interests include temperature reconstruction of late Pleistocene and Holocene climates, assessment of historic and pre-historic human impacts on natural systems, and impacts of recent climate change on lake ecosystems. Much of his research focuses on using chironomid (non-biting midge fly) subfossils in lake sediments as a palaeoenvironmental indicator. His work has been based in the United States, Ireland and China.

Dr Juan Diego Rodriguez-Blanco

Funded Investigator

Juan Diego Rodriguez-Blanco is an Ussher Assistant Professor in Nano-Mineralogy at Trinity College Dublin. He studies the mechanisms by which (bio)minerals form and transform at the nanoscale. His aims are: (i) to shed light on biomineralisation processes, which are deeply linked to the evolution of past and future ocean chemistry; (ii) to study mineral-water reactions that can be applied to remediate polluted waters and soils, to control the mobility and to find new sources of strategic metals. Most of his research has focused on the understanding of the formation mechanisms of carbonates, phosphates and sulfates, using a series of state-of-the-art, in situ synchrotron methods combined with conventional off-line techniques.

Dr Karl Richards

Funded Investigator

Dr Karl Richards is a Principal Research Officer and head of the Environment Soils and Land-Use department in Teagasc Johnstown Castle. His research interests include nitrate leaching to groundwater in grazed grassland/tillage systems, nitrous oxide emissions to air, environmental microbiology and mitigation options to improve the sustainability of agricultural systems.

Dr Carlos Rocha

Funded Investigator

Carlos Rocha is an Associate Professor in Environmental Change at the School of Natural Sciences, TCD. After graduating in Technological Chemistry with honours in 1991, he went on to obtain a PhD in Marine Chemistry "suma cum laude" at the University of Lisbon in 1997. His contribution to the field was recognized at an early stage by two national science awards (1999 & 2000) and a prestigious nomination for the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography Lindemann Award in 2001. Before joining Trinity College, he was a lecturer in Biogeochemistry and the deputy director of the Centre for Marine and Environmental research at the University of Algarve, Portugal.

Dr Micha Ruhl

Funded Investigator

Micha Ruhl is Assistant Professor in Sedimentology at Trinity College Dublin. Before joining TCD in March 2018, Micha worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, UK (2013–2018) and the Nordic Centre for Earth Evolution, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (2010–2013). Before that he was a researcher at the Geological Survey of the Netherlands (TNO-NITG, 2010). Micha did his PhD at Utrecht University, the Netherlands (2006–2010), where he also did his BSc and MSc.

Dr Matthew Saunders

Funded Investigator

Dr Matthew Saunders' background is in Environmental Science, where from his undergraduate days he has had a strong interest in the fields of climate change, sustainable development and role that plants play in the mitigation and adaptation to climate change. He has worked on the tolerance of commercial crop cultivars to salt stress, the impacts of land use, management intensity and land use change on food, fuel and fiber production, in addition to investigating the role of terrestrial ecosystems in atmospheric warming and/or cooling by assessing the carbon and greenhouse gas dynamics of these systems.

Dr Michael Stock

Funded Investigator

Dr Michael Stock is Assistant Professor in the Department of Geology in Trinity College Dublin. His overarching research focus is on the use of state-of-the-art geochemical techniques for understanding the Earth system. This principally involves combining aspects of igneous petrology, volcanology and geochemistry to understand the architecture and dynamics of sub-volcanic magma systems. Much of his work couples novel geochemical analyses with numerical models or geophysical observations. By studying rocks and minerals that have been erupted at active and dormant volcanoes in the past, Michael aims to identify pre-eruptive signals that might aid volcano monitoring efforts in the future. More recently, Michael has started applying similar methods to understand the formation of magmatic mineral deposits. He is particularly interested in the potential for mafic/ultra mafic Ni-Co-(Au)-PGE mineralisation in Irish Palaeogene intrusions.

Dr Emma Tomlinson

Funded Investigator

Dr Emma Tomlinson is Associate Professor of igneous petrology at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. Her research spans a broad range of fields and timescales from understanding the origin and evolution of the Archaean lithosphere and to unravelling the frequency-composition evolution of Quaternary magmatic systems through tephrochronology and magmatic evolution. Her research is focused on the geochemistry of minerals and glasses, with a focus on the application of laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) and energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS) to challenging elements and sample matrices. This includes developing methods for the analysis of small sample areas (tephra, microlite-rich glass, exsolved phases), fully quantitative element mapping and determining concentrations of novel element groups (e.g. energy critical elements, halogens) and low abundance elements (REE in olivine).

Dr Koen Torremans

Funded Investigator

Koen Torremans is a structural geologist who specializes in mineral deposits in sedimentary basins. He is currently Assistant Professor (Ad Astra Lecturer) at University College Dublin, Ireland.

At iCRAG, Koen’s research focuses on analysing structural and stratigraphic controls on mineral deposits at a regional and deposit scale. He is currently actively working on the Irish Orefield, the Central African Copperbelt and the Gariep Belt.

Dr Richard Unitt

Research Fellow

Richard has been studying and practising geology for over 35 years both as an academic and an industry professional. He specialises in mineralogy and petrography but has a broad multidisciplinary background including structural and metamorphic geology, engineering geophysics, base-metal deposits and Raman spectroscopy. His current research concentrates on the examination of stone aggregates in order to understand how they provide friction on our road surfaces but also how they interact with other materials in asphalt. By understanding these factors we can improve the sustainability and safety of the Irish Road Network.

Dr Brian Ward

Funded Investigator

I graduated with a PhD from the Department of Oceanography at NUI, Galway in 1999. I subsequently received a Marie Curie Post-doctoral fellowship at the Nansen Centre/Geophysical Institute in Bergen, Norway. I then moved to the USA where I spent 15 months at the NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Miami, four years at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and two years at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. I returned to NUI, Galway in 2008.

The ocean and atmosphere are locked into a perpetual exchange. For example, the ocean absorbs about 25% of the CO2 that is emitted into the atmosphere.

Dr John Weatherill

Funded Investigator

John completed his BSc in Earth and Ocean Sciences at NUI Galway in 2008 after which he worked as a water quality scientist at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in the UK. He completed a PhD in contaminant hydrogeology at the University of Keele in 2014 (funded by the UK Environment Agency). His doctoral research investigated trichloroethene and nitrate transformation and fate in the hyporheic zone at field scale. Prior to joining the School of BEES, John was an industry practitioner focused on contaminated land site investigation, detailed quantitative risk assessment and remediation of legacy groundwater pollutants in hydrogeologically complex settings. He was the technical lead on projects addressing dense non-aqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs), light non-aqueous phase liquids (LNAPLs), MTBE, chromium and ammonium contamination throughout Ireland and the UK.

Dr Martin White

Funded Investigator

Martin White gained a PhD in physical oceanography at Southampton University in 1991 and has been a lecturer in the NUI Galway Earth and Ocean Sciences discipline since 2003. Martin’s research interests lie in hydrographic processes and bio-physical interactions in continental margin waters. He is a Co-PI leading research in iCRAG's Geomarine Environment research.

Prof. Astrid Wingler

Funded Investigator

Astrid Wingler’s research focuses on the responses of plants to the changing environment, aiming to increase the climate resilience of plant production systems in agriculture and forestry. In particular, she researches the regulatory processes, such as sugar signalling, that determine the allocation of resources in plants and thereby enable plants to adjust metabolism and development in response to climate change and stress. This research exploits natural genetic variation to investigate the genetic basis and molecular mechanisms that regulate leaf senescence and other life-history traits.

Dr Weimu Xu

Funded Investigator

Dr Weimu Xu is an Assistant Professor at University College Dublin. Before joining UCD, she received a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship award (funded by the European Commission) whilst at Trinity College Dublin, working on Paleocene greenhouse climate and the effect of basalt weathering on carbon sequestration. Prior to that, she was an iCRAG (SFI Irish Centre for Research in Applied Geosciences) postdoctoral researcher at TCD, exploring a novel negative carbon emission technology using enhanced plant mediated silicate weathering. Before moving to Ireland, she was a NERC (Natural Environment Research Council) Knowledge Exchange Fellow at the UK Government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), where she advised policy makers on evidence-based policy making in energy and climate science. Previously, she worked as a geophysicist in Shell China on hydrocarbon exploration projects. She received her DPhil degree from the University of Oxford (UK), and

Dr Sate Ahmad

Research Fellow

Saté Ahmad is a Senior Research Fellow (in Ecohydrology) based at the Departments of Botany and Civil, Structural & Environmental Engineering at Trinity College Dublin. His main interest lies in quantifying ecosystem processes and understanding how they may be affected by human activities. Saté’s current research aims at investigating the impact of elevated CO2 and past vegetation changes on evapotranspiration and streamflow in Irish catchments. Additionally, he is responsible for coordinating and managing the Earth System Change research programme within the SFI Research Centre in Applied Geosciences (iCRAG). His previous postdoctoral research involved mapping the risk of subsurface dissolved nutrient export from coastal subcatchments of North Eastern Germany into the southern Baltic Sea. He also has experience in investigating how fen peatland restoration and management measures.

Emma Blanka Kovács

Postdoctoral researcher

Emma Blanka Kovács is a postdoctoral research fellow in the SFI Research Centre in Applied Geosciences (iCRAG), based at Trinity College Dublin, supervised by Dr Micha Ruhl and Prof Gerald Dickens. Blanka completed her PhD in 2024 on sedimentary and foliar mercury sequestration processes at TCD. Blanka earned her Master’s degree (MSc, 2020) in Geology and Bachelor’s degree (BSc, 2017) in Earth Sciences at Eötvös University (Hungary).

This research project focuses on the establishment of a stratigraphic framework for the Early Carboniferous (Early Mississippian, Tournaisian, ~359-347 million years ago) sedimentary record of Ireland to better understand carbon cycle and environmental change across this time interval and to provide a framework for constraining models of Zn-Pb ore formation.

Dr. Tomas Buitendijk

Postdoctoral Researcher

Dr. Tomas Buitendijk is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at iCRAG, working on the Taking Stock project together with Dr. Mark Coughlan (iCRAG), Dr. Geertje Schuitema (iCRAG), and Prof. Tasman Crowe (Earth Institute). Tomas has a background in the Environmental Humanities. He graduated with a BA (Hons.) in Liberal Arts & Sciences from University College Utrecht and an MPhil in Comparative Literature from Trinity College Dublin. He completed his PhD in English at Dublin City University in 2021, having studied changing representations of marine environments under the influence of climate change. Before Taking Stock, Tomas contributed to the Ireland-Wales Ecostructure project. As part of this work, he engaged with communities in south Co. Wicklow (Ireland) to understand the relationship between people and places in the coastal landscape. He also studied how this connection might be affected during periods of change, for example when new infrastructure is introduced.

Dr Paul Guyett

Postdoctoral Researcher

I completed my undergrad degree in Trinity College Dublin in 2013, and my PhD in Trinity College Dublin in 2017. My PhD thesis was titled "Very large bolide impacts: insight from melt products and element behaviour in the crater fill". In 2017 I started a research assistant position in iCRAG Labs in Trinity College Dublin as a SEM specialist.

Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) is a non destructive, rapid method for determining chemistry of minerals and glasses, yet it is not readily accepted over other more destructive techniques. I am developing techniques to improve the quality of element data collected using Scanning Electron Microscopes (SEM). Additionally I am training and assisting other iCRAG researchers and outside collaborators.

Dr Alexis Hrysiewicz

Postdoctoral Researcher

Dr Alexis Hrysiewicz is a postdoctoral researcher in Irish Centre of Research in Applied Geosciences (iCRAG). Alexis graduated with a PhD in Geophysical Volcanology in 2019 from University Clermont Auvergne in France. Now, he joined iCRAG under the supervision of Assoc Prof. Eoghan Holohan and Prof. John Walsh.

The peatlands cover a limited area of Earth but they contain a very large quantity of carbon making them one of the biggest sources of methane. However, their implementation into global warning models is wobbly due to our bad quantification of carbon content for example. Satellites allow measurement the ground surface displacements and scientists have established links between these measures and the peat conditions. However these relations are not clearly defined. My work is therefore focused on the peat displacements and their modelling to improve our quantification of peat conditions and the renewal of peat.

Dr Mehran Khan

Postdoctoral Researcher

Dr. Mehran Khan is a postdoctoral researcher at the University College Dublin, Ireland. His research focuses on development of low carbon 3D printed concretes. He has served as an Associate Editor, Academic Editor, Editorial board member, Special issues Guest Editor, and Topical Advisory Panel Member for various academic journals and international conferences. He has authored more than 50 publications and his publications have received over 2,300 citations, resulting in an h-index of 32 and an i10-index of 36.

Dr Pablo Rodriguez-Salgado

Postdoctoral Researcher

Pablo is a postdoctoral researcher in the iCRAG Energy Security challenge. Pablo completed a PhD in 2019 on the structural evolution of the Celtic Sea Basins (offshore Ireland) with iCRAG/Fault Analysis Group in UCD. His research project focuses on the study of potential sites for geological storage of CO2 in the Celtic Sea Basins. The Basins, with a long-standing exploration history that has led to several commercial gas discoveries and a large subsurface dataset, constitute an excellent location for potential CO2 storage and the associated reduction of Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions

Dr. Thomas Weiss

Postdoctoral Researcher

Thomas graduated with an undergraduate degree in geology from Cornell College in 2016 and completed a PhD in Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University in 2022. He began as an ICRAG postdoctoral researcher in winter 2023. Broadly, his research interests center on generating records of past climate using the chemistry of biogenic carbonates (foraminifera, corals).

The chemistry of plankton shells preserved in ocean floor sediments provide invaluable records of ocean temperature and salinity that reach much farther back in time than direct human measurements. The climate signal preserved in these shells however is susceptible to dissolution in acidic ocean water. This is especially problematic for the Arctic and subpolar Oceans where surface waters are a major sink of atmospheric CO2.

Dr. Vincent Roche

Postdoc Research Fellow

Vincent Roche joined iCRAG as a postdoctoral researcher in January 2019. Previously, Vincent was a postdoctoral researcher with the Fault Analysis Group and at the University of Alberta. Vincent graduated with a PhD in 2011 from the University of Paris 6, France. His research interests focus on structural and geomechanical analysis of fractures and induced seismicity.

Project title: Controls of fault-related deformation in the Porcupine Basin, Ireland – implications for fault-related trapping.

Faults are a key factor controlling the migration, accumulation, and preservation of hydrocarbons in reservoirs. In my research, I examine the faults in the Porcupine Basin in Irish offshore. Using seismic reflection data, I investigate their 3D geometry and associated deformation field. This work will provide a better understanding of fault development and has implications towards de-risking hydrocarbon exploration in Ireland.

Vincent Adongo

PhD Researcher

Vincent Adongo is a PhD student currently at the University College Dublin. He has a bachelor’s degree in physics with a specialisation in Geophysics from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, KNUST, Ghana. He continued his master’s degree in Geophysics from the same University and won lots of laurels. These include AAU internship grant in 2017, a meritorious Graduate Assistantship position in the 2017/2018 academic year during his postgraduate studies in Ghana. He was awarded several scholarships and fellowships including the ICCR scholarship, Study in India scholarship and IISER-Kolkata fellowship, all in the year 2020. He was a project student in India and worked on a project in computational mineral physics where he gained adequate research experience in understanding the lower mantle mineral composition. He was awarded the SFI-Centre for Applied Geosciences Scholarship in 2022 as a PhD candidate in Ireland.

Sajjad Ahmad

PhD Researcher

Sajjad Ahmad is a PhD researcher who has worked as a hydrogeologist with seven years of experience in the field. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Geology from University of the Punjab, Pakistan and a Master's degree in hydrogeology from the same University. He was working as a project Coordinator in Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF-Pakistan) before joining Trinity College Dublin (TCD). Sajjad's professional experience includes national and multinational organizations where he conducted groundwater resource assessments, developed groundwater management plans, wetlands rehabilitation, designed and implemented monitoring programs. He has been actively involved in studies of hydrology/hydrogeology at catchment level that summarizes the catchment water balance owing to compliance for Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) standard.

Marcos Amores

Postgraduate Researcher

Marcos Amores is a PhD researcher at University College Cork. Marcos graduated with a BSc in Biology and Geology in 2020 from University of Minho (Portugal), and a funded joint MSc in Palaeobiology from both University of Lille (France) and University of Uppsala (Sweden) in 2022 through the Erasmus Mundus PANGEA programme. He joined iCRAG as part of the Earth System Change programme in 2022 under the supervision of Dr Chris Mays. Marcos' research interests include palaeoclimatology, geochemistry, palaeobotany, and palynology.

Climate and Environment

Postgraduate Researcher

Thomas is a Postgraduate researcher in iCRAG at University College Dublin (UCD) studying Resurgent Caldera Volcanoes using numerical and analogue modelling to understand their fault architecture. Thomas initially graduated from the University of Southampton with a BSc in Geology in 2018 and a MRes in Marine Geology and Geophysics in 2019. Thomas took a sabbatical from academics to become a Mathematics and Science teacher at a Bishopsgate School in Surry in the U.K. Subsequently, he completed a MSc in Volcanology from the University of Bristol, graduating in 2022 before joining iCRAG in January of 2023, under the supervision of Dr Claire Harnett and Dr Eoghan Holohan.

Somaye Bayat

PhD Researcher

Somaye Bayat received a B.Sc. (2013) in Mining Engineering from the Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, an M.Sc. (2017) in geophysics from Tehran University in Iran, and an M.Sc. (2022) from the National University of Ireland, Galway and the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS). Now she is a Ph.D. student at the National University of Ireland, Galway, and DIAS under the supervision of Dr. Tiernan Henry.

Groundwater resources make up about 16 percent of Ireland’s public water supply, but the nature and extent of the resource distribution at depth (100m) is poorly understood. The broad context of project is to develop a better understanding of deep groundwater resources in Irish limestones using existing seismic data sets.

Malena Cazorla Martínez

PhD Researcher

Malena is a PhD researcher at iCRAG - University College Dublin, in the Raw Materials department. She graduated with a BSc in Geology in 2019 from the University of Barcelona (Spain). Later on, she moved to Geneva (Switzerland), where she did her master's degree in Geochemistry, Alpine Tectonics, and Ore Deposits at the University of Geneva. Before joining iCRAG, Malena's research projects focused mainly on critical metal distribution and fluid evolution in epithermal deposits in the Andean Cordillera (Bolivia and Peru).

Nicolas Luca Celli

Postdoctoral Researcher

I am a seismologist, specialised in imaging the earth’s interior. During my PhD I worked on imaging the Earth's mantle using millions of earthquake records. After that, I focussed my attention on how we can use numerical modelling to understand quantitatively how we can use fibre-optic cables to sense ground motion. My main interest at the moment is developing numerical tools to use new fibre-optic sensing techniques to image the subsurface.

In the current project I aim to detect groundwater flow using the ground vibrations it produces, using a new sensing technique that utilises optical fibre cables as ground motion sensors.

Prithwijit Chakraborti

PhD Researcher

Prithwijit Chakraborti is a PhD researcher in iCRAG at University College Dublin. He is an Irish Research Council (IRC) Postgraduate scholar. His research focuses on 3D modelling of volcanic rocks in the Limerick Basin subsurface using geophysics and petrophysics. Prithwijit graduated from Fergusson College, Pune (India) in 2017 with a BSc in Physics and earned a degree of MSc. Tech in Applied Geophysics from IIT (ISM) Dhanbad (India) in 2021.

Limerick Basin, located in the south-western part of Ireland has been area of intense mineral exploration activity since the discovery of several economic and sub-economic Zn-Pb prospects in the region. The mineralization in this region exhibits a close spatial association with the volcanics rocks which necessitates the modelling of the volcanic rocks in detail.

Niladri Chowdhury

PhD Researcher

Niladri completed a Bachelors Of Engineering in Civil Engineering at Jadavpur University, India, and completed a Master Of Technology (M.Tech) in Civil Engineering Department with specialization in Environmental Engineering from Indian Institute Of Technology Guwahati (IIT Guwahati). His M.Tech project was about groundwater quality monitoring and modeling. Currently, he is a Ph.D. student in the Department Of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering at Trinity College Dublin. The extent of microbiological contamination and transport of waterborne pathogens in aquifers is still not well understood and remains an ongoing, globally important, water quality and associated public health problem. Moreover, as a result of increasing numbers of point and non-point sources of faecal pollution in catchments, population growth, extreme weather events associated with climate change, and rapid land-use alterations, such water quality problems are likely to be exacerbated in the future.

Clara Crowell

PhD Researcher

Clara received a BA in Geosciences from Trinity College Dublin in 2022 and briefly worked as a geologist in Canada for Equity Exploration. Now she is pursuing a Ph.D. in applied geosciences at UCD under the supervision of Sam Kelley. Constraining the properties and behaviors of past ice sheets provides crucial information for the numerical modelling of ice sheets and sea level rise. Glacial landforms can be used to infer past ice sheet behavior and conditions, as well as provide information on thickness, flow direction and velocity. This project uses glacial land forms to investigate landscape evolution to refine Ireland's glacial history and improve mineral exploration techniques.

Elena Geiger

PhD Researcher

Elena completed her undergraduate in geosciences at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) in Germany, with the major subjects petrology-geodynamics-georesources, applied mineralogy and sedimentology. This was followed by a master degree in geosciences at the same university from 2019 to 2022 with the major subjects petrology-geodynamics-georesources and applied mineralogy. In September 2022, she started a PhD in geochemistry and economic geology at University College Dublin (UCD).

Farimah Fattahi

PhD Researcher

Farimah is a PhD student in Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Galway. Her current research investigates the creep behaviour of peat soils under surcharged embankments. She has over six years of professional experience as the head of geotechnical departments, where she supervised soil and concrete laboratories and managed geotechnical investigations for various projects. Her previous research focused on stabilizing problematic soils, such as dispersive and expansive clays, using eco-friendly materials.

Peat soils, which cover 17% of Ireland, play a vital role in storing carbon and supporting biodiversity. However, they present challenges for construction due to their high compressibility and tendency to long-term settlement. Traditional methods, like removing and replacing peat, are costly and environmentally damaging. This research explores a more sustainable approach: applying temporary surcharge load to overconsolidate the peat before road construction.

La Donna Fredericks

PhD Researcher

La Donna Fredericks is a Guyanese geologist. She is a phD candidate at UCD and a part of the iCRAG team doing a research project in economic and structural geology. She enjoys doing field work, networking, and being part of a dynamic team (together each achieve more). Her hobbies are travelling, drawing, dancing, and problem solving. All in all her main goal is to be the best version of herself.

As the population increase there is a growing demand for zinc and lead, which are base metals used in the electrical, automotive and construction fields. As such, this research project will help to determine where next to look for these metals to meet the growing demand. La Donna's contribution is to describe how the rocks fold and fracture so we can better understand how the minerals behaved. This will require working back in time to determine what happened to the rocks, how and why.

Guillaume Hug

PhD Researcher

Guillaume completed a BSc in theoretical physics at the University of Strasbourg (France) between 2016 and 2020. In 2022, he a Master's degree from the University Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (Lyon, France) in Ocean, Atmosphere and Climate Sciences, specializing in Climate Sciences. He completed an internship at the Laboratory of Ocean Physics and Satellite Remote Sensing (Brest, France) under the supervision of Swen Jullien and Clément Vic on the life cycle of internal waves around New Caledonia based on the results of a CROCO simulation. He currently undertaking his PhD research at ICARUS with Dr Gerard McCarthy in the framework of a Science Foundation Ireland (SFI iCRAG) funded project on the mid-20th century Atlantic circulation using modern observations and models (MACMOMO project). The focus of my research is on the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and its variations over time.

Simon Jones

Researcher

Dr Simon Jones is a Research Fellow based at University College Dublin. Simon obtained a BSc in Geology from Imperial College London (2007) and a PhD from the University of St Andrews (2020). He has worked in petroleum and mineral exploration, most recently for First Quantum Minerals as the Principal Geologist for Basin-Hosted Mineral Systems. He joined iCRAG in 2023. His research spans a variety of basin-hosted mineral systems including iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCGs), carbonate-hosted Pb-Zn, and volcanic massive sulphide (VMS) deposits. His primary field of interest is sediment-hosted stratiform copper, where he has extensive experience in the Central African Copperbelt (Zambia-DRC) and has worked on White Pine (Michigan), Creta (Oklahoma), Spar Lake (Montana), Kupferschiefer (Germany), Motheo (Botswana) and Dzhezkazgan (Kazakhstan).

Mahdi Khoshlahjeh Azar

PhD Researcher

Mahdi Khoshlahjeh Azar received a B.Sc. degree in Geomatics from Tabriz University, Iran, in 2017; an M.Sc. degree in remote sensing and photogrammetry (thesis title: Investigating the behavior of land subsidence in susceptible areas of sinkhole using InSAR) from K.N. Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 2019. He is currently a Ph.D. researcher at University College Dublin, School of Earth Sciences, and working on the topic of monitoring Irish peatland restoration by satellite remote sensing under the supervision of Dr. Eoghan Holohan. He has authored and co-authored several research papers, including leading international journals and peer-reviewed international conference proceedings. His main research interests are in SAR Interferometry (InSAR) and RADAR remote sensing. Additionally, he is interested in machine/deep learning and time series analysis.

Adam Mann

Masters Student

Adam is an early career researcher in the field of geotechnical engineering. He graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a bachelors degree in Geoscience in 2023. Following this he worked for a year as an engineering geologist in the ground investigations industry, before finding his way into a research masters degree in geotechnical engineering at UCD. As a geotechnical engineer, his work draws upon the knowledge and research from both the fields of geoscience and of engineering in order to better understand the ground under our feet, from an engineering point of view, so that construction works can be designed accordingly. Adam's research focuses on developing a greater understanding of the properties and behaviour of a specific type of clay called Irish Sea Till, which lies along much of the east coast. This clay has not yet been studied in detail from an geotechnical point of view and is known to cause issues with construction.

Kevin McGraw

PhD Researcher

Kevin has a background in aerial and marine survey using remote sensing technologies. He graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York with a Master's in Mechanical Engineering in 2018. Between then and 2022 Kevin was employed in various airborne survey projects using digital photography and lidar including efforts to assess storm damage, coastal erosion, underwater vegetation, marine wildlife distribution, and gravimetry. He has experience in operating autonomous underwater vehicles AUVs using side-scan and multibeam sonar to map the ocean floor and locate wrecks. Most recently, he started PhD studies in the department of physics at the University of Galway in October 2022.

Jason McFadden

Postgraduate Researcher

Jason is a Geoscientist who completed his BSc in Earth Science at University College Cork in 2022. After completing a Masters in Geological and Environmental Hazards at the University of Portsmouth, he joined the Marine Geoscience Research Team as a Research Assistant/GIS Analyst. His master’s Thesis focused on the use of different RS techniques such as Optical satellite imagery/InSAR in combination with GIS to monitor the increasing hazards presented by glacial lake expansion in high mountain areas as a result of climate change. Jason currently works on the Donegal FLOWEnergy MCDS project funded by SFI through iCRAG with support from Hexicon AB

Rioko Moscardini

Postgraduate Researcher

Rioko is a PhD researcher in iCRAG's Earth Resources and Energy Transition research areas. Rioko graduated from Durham University in 2017 with a BSc in Environmental Geoscience, before completing her Masters in Petroleum Geoscience at Imperial College London. Rioko then worked as an Energy Transition Policy Analyst at CGG before joining the iCRAG team in 2023, under the supervision of Dr. Kara English and Professor Peter Haughton.

The Kish Bank Basin is located 5-40km offshore Dublin and may be a future geological storage site for use in the energy transition. The reservoir interval has the potential to be a hydrothermal resource to Ireland's capital city. This project will investigate the controls affecting the Triassic reservoir quality in the Irish Sea basins and Northern Ireland, and evaluate its suitability for geostorage.

Julie O Donovan

Postgraduate Researcher

Julie O Donovan is a current PhD student in the University of Galway under the supervision of Dr. Aaron Potito. Julie graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Environmental Science in 2022 from University College Cork (UCC).

One of the biggest global threats to human health is Antimicrobial resistance. Through the analysis of lake cores from Lough Muckno, Co. Monaghan, Julie's project assesses i) the impact of the shift in Irish agriculture - from a traditional crop/pasture rotational system to modern and intensive pastures and ii) the impact of human sewage discharge on both faecal pollution (via E. coli) and the antimicrobial susceptibly profiles of faecal bacteria in the aquatic environment. TARE is the first study to assess the evolution of antibiotic resistance from a spatiotemporal perspective in an environment impacted by both human and agricultural waste.

Dr. Oluwayemisi Olomo

Postdoctoral Researcher

Oluwayemisi Olomo is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at UCD and is currently working on the social acceptance of Critical Raw Materials with Prof. Geertje Schuitema at iCRAG. Prior to her current research, she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Teagasc where she focused on innovative Short Food Supply Chains in the Horizon 2020 research project agroBRIDGES. She received her PhD in Management from Lagos Business School, Pan-Atlantic University, Nigeria in 2020 and her area of specialization is marketing. Her research interests cover consumer behaviour, branding, and digital technology applications in marketing. Her first degree is in the medical sciences.

Europe has set decarbonisation targets which require an increased supply of critical raw materials to meet those targets. My research explores how citizens as societal stakeholders make decisions concerning the sourcing of critical raw materials in the EU, and the trade-offs involved in arriving at those decisions.

Hannah Othen

PhD researcher

Hannah is a PhD researcher within the earths resources sector of iCRAG. She graduated from Keele University with her BSc. and MSc. in Geoscience and Geoscience research respectively. In 2022 Hannah joined iCRAG and University College Dublin under the supervision of Dr. Koen Torremans. Hannah's project will use large datasets including geophysical data and core samples to investigate the structural geology and stratigraphy within the basin margins across the Irish Midlands. This will be linked to finding suitable carbonate host rocks for earth resources including geothermal energy and mineral exploration.

Gregor Rink

Postgraduate Researcher

Gregor Rink started his studies with a BSc in Geosciences at the University of Cologne (Germany), where he completed his thesis research on a new method using Structure-from-Motion to determine bulk soil densities. During his subsequent MSc at the University of Tübingen (Germany), Gregor continued his studies in Geosciences, specialising in Geodynamics, and for his MSc thesis used LiDAR and Structure-from-Motion to assess rockfalls in the Swiss Alps.

Rebecca Rivera

Phd Researcher

Rebecca is currently a PhD researcher at Trinity College Dublin, under the supervision of Carla J. Harper. She graduated with a B.A in Environmental Sciences from Trinity College Dublin in 2022. Rebecca joined iCRAG in 2022 as part of the Earth Systems Change research group.

Emilia Palenius

PhD Researcher

Emilia Palenius is a PhD researcher in University College Cork. Emilia graduated with a BSc Hons in International Field Geoscience in 2015 from UCC. She started her PhD in 2023 under the supervision of Dr. John Weatherill. The groundwater and surface water is often regarded as separate entities, however the groundwater-surface water interface (hyporheic zone) is potentially an important natural bioreactor zone.

Amanda Perera

PhD Researcher

Amanda originally comes from Sri Lanka and started her Ph.D. in January 2023 with Associate Professor Micha Ruhl at the Department of Geology, Trinity College, Dublin. Her main research interests are stratigraphy, organic/Inorganic geochemistry, paleoclimatology, paleobotany, and paleoceanography. She completed her master’s degree in 2022 in the Department of earth science at Shimane University Japan, and completed her undergraduate degree at the Rajarata University of Sri Lanka majoring in Chemistry and Physics. Her goal is to become an all-around climate scientist, that can play an important role in the public debate, guiding societal, industrial, or academic decision-making. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, watching documentaries, reading novels, and exploring Dublin.

Andrea Pierozzi

PhD Researcher

Andrea Pierozzi is a PhD student at Trinity College of Dublin. He obtained my bachelor's degree and his master's degree at the University of Florence, with a thesis in the field of geochemistry. Last year he attended a one-year course at the University of Basilicata; the focus of this course was the role of management in the energy transition.

The goal of Andrea's work is to ginvestigate what happens when basalt reacts with water and carbon dioxide at high temperatures and pressures. This work is carried out because it is with a view to decarbonising, in fact many companies are developing similar processes in order to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Muhammad Saqlain

Postgraduate Researcher

Muhammad Saqlain is currently a PhD researcher at University College Dublin (UCD) under the guidance of Dr. Shane Donohue. He completed his Bachelor of Science in Geology at the Federal University of Arts, Science, and Technology in Karachi, Pakistan in 2015. Following their undergraduate studies, he gained two years of experience in a soil testing company located in Karachi. In 2021, he achieved a Master's degree in Geotechnical Engineering from National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) and subsequently served as a research assistant at the National Central University Taiwan for one and a half years.

Josua Seitz

Postgraduate Researcher

Josua is a PhD student at the Botany Department, Trinity College Dublin. He graduated with a MSc in Earth Sciences from Umeå University, Sweden in 2023 before starting his PhD at Trinity College Dublin under the supervision of Dr. Silvia Caldararu.

Grasslands cover much of the global land area and are often heavily managed. Their large carbon storage and susceptibility to climate change makes them an important field of research. Josua's project will aim to improve how grassland ecosystems are represented in land surface models which are used to predict how climate change affects ecosystems in the future.

Ankit Swaraj

PhD Researcher

Ankit is a PhD researcher at the University of Galway, working under the supervision of Prof. Peter Croot. He finished his B.Sc. (Research) in Earth and Environmental Science from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, in 2017. Since then, he have been part of the stable isotope group (OASIS) at IISc, working as a project assistant and project associate. He loves venturing into the ocean and have participated in three research expeditions, one in the Bay of Bengal and two in the Southern Ocean, to better understand the hydrological cycle and the kinetic processes that govern the isotopic composition of precipitation on the ocean's surface or during moisture generation.

Livia Teixeira

Postdoctoral Researcher

Livia Teixeira is a Brazilian geologist and a member of the iCRAG team at Trinity College Dublin, where she works as a Research Assistant in the LA-ICP-MS laboratory, focusing on the characterization of raw materials. Her doctoral research in Geophysics explores the petrographic, geochemical, and magnetic properties of Neoarchean banded iron formations from Carajás, Brazil. When she's not in the lab investigating rocks, Livia has a deep appreciation for art, nature, and enjoys exploring music, photography, and planning her next adventure. She also loves kayaking, reading, sipping wine, and spending quality time with friends. Livia has a passion for meeting new people and believes that empathy, kindness, and respect are the foundations of any relationship/society—after all, 'gentileza gera gentileza'.

Nikita Turton

PhD Researcher

Nikita is a PhD researcher working within the Earth Systems Change research group of iCRAG. Nikita graduated with a MSc in Geology from the Antarctic Research Centre at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington in 2019, where her research investigated the ice dynamics and oceanic response of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet to orbital forcing during the early Pliocene. Nikita then worked in the Rafter Radiocarbon Laboratory at Te Pū Ao—GNS Science in Wellington before starting her PhD at UCD in 2023 under the supervision of Dr. Weimu Xu.

Isuri Weerasinghe

PhD Researcher

Isuri completed her Bachelor of Science in Fisheries and Marine Sciences at the University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka. She is an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree holder in Marine Environment and Resources (MER+), completed at three different universities under the Erasmus mobility program: the University of Southampton, UK; the University of Bordeaux, France; and the University of Basque Country, Spain. Her master's thesis project was based on microplastics in fish and was carried out at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, before she joined iCRAG in 2023, under the supervision of Dr. Martin White and Prof. David Reid.

Nanyu Wei

PhD Researcher

Nanyu is a PhD researcher at iCRAG - University College Dublin. Before joining iCRAG, Nanyu graduated with a BSc in Exploration Geophysics in 2020 and later studied for MSc at Southern University of Science and Technology (Shenzhen, China), mainly focusing on joint inversion with deep learning method. Nanyu is an optimistic Earth explorer who believes in the power of scientific research to promote equality, diversity and inclusion.

Nanyu’s current main research objective is to quantify the relationship between ore mineralogy and texture and the geophysical response in electromagnetic surveys. She is exploring and hopes to tell an interesting story about the petrophysical response of different geologic units and mineralization types in Lisheen deposit.

Pouya Zahedi

PhD Researcher

Pouya successfully concluded his MSc in Geotechnical Engineering from Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University of Iran in 2020. He is currently working on piles and foundation systems and as a result of his research, he recently established a knowledge-based company to commercialize Screw/Helical Piling in Iran.

Foundation systems play key role in stability of the structures. In order to design the foundation systems for buildings, geotechnical engineers need a deep understanding of the behavior of the various types of the foundation systems. Pouya's research involves investigating the performance of the driven piles as a deep foundation system for buildings, and the outcomes will help engineers to develop more accurate designs.

Keyvan Zandkarimi

PhD Researcher

Keyvan is working on upper Paleozoic biostratigraphy, sedimentology and paleogeography using several proxies to reach the final interpretation with large-scaled geological implications. Previously, he worked for a decade on sedimentary rocks of Iran (Alborz, Central Iran and Zagros), mainly upper Paleozoic and published nearly 20 international-domestic research articles and books.

The Carboniferous (358.9-298.9Ma) witnessed profound changes in the Earth System, most notably significant palaeoclimatic fluctuations associated with the onset of the Late Paleozoic Ice Age, along with palaeo-oceanographical and tectonic events stimulated by the final stages of assembly of the Pangean supercontinent. Ireland has an extensive rock record from this time interval and is an excellent location for Carboniferous research with economically considerable Mississippian Pb-Zn reservoirs.

Dr Aoife Brady

COO

Aoife is the iCRAG Centre Manager and is responsible for all management and functions of the Centre. She leads the Operations Team and develops and implements the iCRAG strategy

Aoife graduated with a BSc Hons in Earth Science from the University of Galway in 2006 after which she completed a PhD in carbonatites, kimberlites and lamprophyres also at the University of Galway. Following this, she worked as an exploration geologist for 4.5 years on the Songwe Hill Carbonatite Project with Rare Earth Element (REE) exploration company, Mkango Resources, in southern Malawi, Africa. She then took up the role of Geodata Product Manager at International Geoscience Services (IGS) Ltd., based at the British Geological Survey (BGS) in Nottingham, where she oversaw the company’s new mineral prospectivity software. In 2016 Aoife moved to the Geological Survey Ireland (GSI) where she managed, Tellus, the GSI’s national ground and airborne data acquisition programme.

Emer Caslin

Business Development Manager

Emer is iCRAG's Business Development Manager. Working closely with the iCRAG team, industry partners and state agencies, She will play a central role in the development and implementation of the Centre's business development strategy, helping to coordinate and implement plans to ensure the Centre achieves its commercialisation and industry cost-share KPI targets. Emer has 19 years experience in the energy industry working internationally as a Geoscientist specialising in reservoir interpretation, structural and property modelling. She has held roles in technical consulting, business development and Portfolio Management; ranging from daily technical operation support to advising on corporate-level geoscience strategy. Recently Emer has transitioned into sustainability; assessing how geoscientists can help shape and influence society, economic systems and the environment.

Abdoulie Faal

Data Manager

Abdoulie received his BSc from the University of the Gambia in 2012 and recently completed his MSc in Health Informatics at Swansea University. He began his career in 2012 with the MRCG at LSHTM as a Trainee Software Developer for two years. In 2014, he got promoted to Senior Data Programmer for the BioBank project, EMRS, and various clinical trials in the unit. Although his focus in this role revolves more around devising data management plans, creating CRFs, and query management processes, his most recent role as a lead developer focuses on automating data management processes to increase efficiency.

Brendan Kenna

IT Specialist

Brendan Kenna works on the iCRAG Operations Team as an IT specialist. Brendan is based in UCD and offers IT support to iCRAG including the setup & day to day running and troubleshooting of workstations (i.e. PCs and laptops), and administration over the systems that they utilise (i.e. networking, storage, and computing). His background is in research computing (HPC in bioinformatics), and IT (On-site & Public Cloud). He will also support the Team in related IT disciplines such as data processing, hardware platforms, software applications, database administration and outsourced systems.

Shonny Lehane

Operations Manager

Shonny is the iCRAG Operations Manager and coordinates the day-to-day running of the Centre to deliver on our required reporting and to provide supports to iCRAG members. Shonny graduated MGeol Applied and Environmental Geology from University of Leicester in 2006, and has 13 years’ experience in the mineral exploration and mining industry. Her experience includes geological-geophysical interpretation for regional mapping and exploration targeting (Fugro Airborne Surveys), exploration geology in Zambia (Equinox Minerals, Barrick Gold), and mine waste monitoring and management in Western Australia. Most recently, Shonny was responsible for gold exploration database management, assay management and QAQC reporting for projects in West Africa.

Francis Manu

Finance Manager

Francis supports iCRAG in all levels of finance and operations including financial administration for the Centre and liaison with SFI/funded institutes regarding finances. Francis joined iCRAG from UCD Research Finance Office. He has over 7 years of experience in the Higher Education Institution (HEI) sector, working in research project management where he managed a diverse portfolio of research projects from a range of research funders such as the European Commission, Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), and other oversees charities, research councils and funders

Lucy Blennerhasset

EPE Officer

Lucy is a Geology PhD graduate with a background in geochemistry and environmental geoscience. Her PhD was focused on using peat as an archive of atmospheric deposition. After realising a love for discussing science with the public during her studies, she is now pursuing a career in public engagement and science communication. Lucy also loves the outdoors and is a big foodie!

Lucy researches and develops methods of public engagement with the focus of her efforts on the 'informal' public engagement space (e.g., festivals). Lucy is part of the VECTOR project and her work is centred on creating new ways to engage audiences with the concept of 'critical' raw materials, i.e., metals that we mine and need in society. In particular Lucy's work focuses on the important role of these materials in achieving EU climate goals.

As part of the VECTOR project, Lucy is working on developing a public engagement toolkit for use at informal events that addresses the need for critical raw materials in a

Oisin O'Connor

Administration and Logistics Support Officer

Oisin joined ICRAG from the UCD Student Health Service where he worked a Senior Executive Assistant. He worked at the front desk providing support to students as well as provide administration support to the Health care team. Before that, he worked as the editor of Oxyegen.ie -a student focused entertainment website and was involved in the National Student Media awards amongst other projects. He graduated from University College Dublin 2018 with a degree in English and History.

Elspeth Sinclair

Education and Engagement Officer

Elspeth Sinclair manages two public engagement programmes: Earth Science Education and Geocareers in iCRAG, including Girls into Geoscience Ireland. Elspeth is an experienced science communicator, with a passion for promoting women in science and works closely with the Responsible Decision Making in geosciences research area as part of her role.

Luke Decaux

Partnership Manager Operations team

Luke Decaux is the Partnerships Manager at iCRAG. He comes from a varied background having worked in Business, Academia and the Not for Profit sectors. He is very excited to contribute positively to the amazing work that is undertaken here at iCRAG.

Dr. Eloise Rogers

iCRAG Research Impact Manager

Eloise holds a PhD in Geophysics from Trinity College Dublin and previously spent over a decade in the energy industry, managing large-scale geophysical acquisition projects in regions including Africa and the Caribbean. She brings a strong background in science communication, stakeholder engagement, and strategic project delivery to her role.

Eloise’s research focused on understanding how the Earth’s surface and deeper layers have changed over time, using geophysical data such as satellite imagery, airborne surveys, and seismic data. She worked on integrating different types of data to build clearer pictures of underground structures, particularly across parts of Africa. Her work supported efforts to better understand natural resources and promoted the use of low-impact, innovative technologies to reduce the environmental footprint of geophysical exploration.

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