Governance Committee

Dr. Mary Kelly

Committee Chair

Dr Kelly has extensive experience of working in both the private and public sectors. She has served as Director General of the Environmental Protection Agency from 2002 to 2011 and as Chairperson of An Bord Pleanála between 2011 and 2018. She is a well-respected leader with experience in strategy development, change management and corporate governance, as well as chairing boards and high level committees. In her time in the EPA she has been credited with highlighting the issues around climate change and with transforming the Agency from a relatively bureaucratic and inward facing organisation to a more public facing organisation serving the needs of its many stakeholders and the environment. In An Bord Pleanála, aside from assessment and decisions on planning files, she undertook a transformational project moving the organisation from an entirely paper-based system to a digitally enabled organisation. Mary holds a BA (Mod) and a PhD in Chemistry from Trinity College Dublin and an MBA f

Matt Collins

DECC

Mr Collins is the Assistant Secretary leading the Energy function at the Department of Environment, Climate, and Communications. He is responsible for policy across energy regulations, renewable energy, energy decarbonisation, energy efficiency, and energy security, with the aim of ensuring a secure, competitive, and sustainable energy system. Matthew joined the Department in 2016, having worked previously in the Departments of Health, Environment and Local Government, Foreign Affairs, Finance, as well as in the Communications Division and Natural Resources and Waste Policy function of the Department. Mr Collins served as Chair of iCRAG’s Phase 1 Governance Committee for over five years providing expert guidance to ensure the strategic success of the Centre.

Dr. Marie Cowan

GNSI

Dr Cowan is the Science Director with the British Geological Survey (BGS) and Director at its Belfast office, the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland (GSNI). Dr Cowan is also a member of the Royal Irish Academy’s Geosciences and Geographical Sciences Committee, where she spearheaded the introduction of an MLA-Geoscientist Pairing Scheme in Northern Ireland. Marie is a certified member of the Institute of Directors and a professional geologist with the Institute of Geologists of Ireland. She is also a member of the NI Assembly All Party Group for Science and Technology and the NI Learned Societies and Professional Bodies Forum. Dr Cowan has been a cornerstone in the £6M Tellus and £4.5M Tellus Border soil geochemistry and geophysical mapping projects in NI and Ireland; the communications campaigns of which were awarded five industry awards from Chartered Institute of Public Relations and Public Relations Institute of Ireland.

Dr. Eucharia Meehan

DIAS

Dr Meehan has over 20 years of leadership experience across a range of public and private research based organisations. In 2017, Dr Meehan was appointed CEO at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS), the only such institute in Ireland, which since its inception has focused on fundamental frontier & discovery research. She is an acknowledged leader in advancing gender equality and diversity policies, in particular as Director of the Irish Research Council, and was designated ScienceEurope’s first Gender and Diversity Champion (2016-2017). Currently, she is a member of the Advisory Committee to the EU supported initiative GenderSmart. Honoured in 2017 to be elected as a member of the Royal Irish Academy, Dr Meehan was further honoured with her election to its Council the following year. In addition to committee memberships nationally, by virtue of her role at a European level, she is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board to Biocenter Finland and served as an elected board m

Prof. John Thompson

PetraScience Consultants Inc.

Prof. Thompson is a consultant at PetraScience Consultants Inc, where he consults on exploration, mining, and sustainability. He is also Honorary Professor of Sustainable Resources at the University of Bristol, Technical and Business Adviser at KoBold Metals, and a board member at MineSense Technologies. Previously, he has been the Wold Professor of Environmental Balance for Human Sustainability at Cornell University. He has worked in the mining industry and related research for over 35 years, serving as Chief Geoscientist and Vice President of Technology and Development for Teck Resources, and Director of the Mineral Deposit Research Unit at the University of British Columbia. Prof. Thompson has extensive experience in diverse leadership roles in many organisations, and has served as Chair on numerous boards including Resources for Future Generations (2018), Genome BC, Geoscience BC, and the Canada Mining Innovation Council. He has been a member of two councils for the World Economic

Prof. Claudia Mora

Jackson School of Geosciences

Since February 2020, Prof. Claudia Mora has served as Dean of world renowned Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas, Austin. For over 13 years, she served the Los Alamos National Laboratory as Group Leader in Earth Systems Observations and subsequently Deputy Division Leader of the Chemistry Division. She also held leadership roles at Los Alamos in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Division and the Nuclear Nonproliferation and Security Program Office. Prior to Los Alamos, she was a faculty member at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and served as department head. A defining factor of distinction is Prof. Mora’s leadership of collaborative research at the intersection of geology, soil science, and dendrochronology. Her research has focused on stable isotope proxy records of climate and environment captured in terrestrial archives, including soils and fossil soils, tree rings, and lake sediments. Prof. Mora has been recognized nationally and globally for her exp

Ms Eudy N. Mabuza

Minister Counsellor: Science and Innovation at the Embassy of the Republic of South Africa

Ms Mabuza has eighteen and half years of progressive experience in the Public Sector engaging and mediating with international agencies in an effort to increasing bilateral and science, technology and innovation investments towards the South African Science System. She has been dealing with a wide range of policy issues related to science and innovation, as well as specific innovative capacity development initiatives.

She is currently serving as a Minister Counsellor: Science and Innovation at the Embassy of the Republic of South Africa in Brussels where she is seconded by the Department of Science and Innovation. She is responsible for the management and strengthening the South Africa Science, Technology and Innovation Collaboration between South Africa and International partners like the European Union (EU). Previously, she was the Chief of Staff (Head of Cabinet) to the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation. She also served as a Minister Counsellor in Tokyo.

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