DCU WATER - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Independent Consultant
- Government Employee and Industry Advisor
- Policy Development and Stakeholder Engagement Specialist
Allison Dancey is a policy development and stakeholder engagement specialist, with a background in natural resource development and sustainable economic development. Allison's background experience includes a broad range of natural resource protection and development, including agricultural, fisheries and aquaculture, and petroleum.
In addition to culture and the arts Allison's experience of stakeholder engagement includes, relationship development and management, community engagement and consultation, and the program management of policy consultation and implementation.
Expertise:
As a former Government employee and industry advisor, Allison has gathered diverse teams in the pursuit of specific policy agenda. This work with people of differing social, economic and cultural backgrounds provided a broad insight into to the motivation and objectives of industry and community, and the opportunities to find common ground.
As a retired government employee and policy specialist, Allison is now now focused on initiatives and activities that seek that common ground whether it is related to guidance for new thinking and approaches to business and economy, environmental management, climate change mitigation or social policy for sustainable communities and people with overarching respect for the living environment.
The Water Institute is a Research Centre based in Dublin City University.
Job Titles:
- Lecturer in the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing
Dr Brian Corcoran is a Lecturer in the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at Dublin City University. A graduate of Bolton Street, College of Technology and of Dublin City University, he is a Chartered Engineer and was a warded his Ph.D. in 2003. He is the Associate Dean of Education in the Faculty of Engineering and Computing. Brian currently lectures on Thermo-Fluids, Sustainable Water Systems and Pneumatics at DCU.
Expertise
Brian's research interests include Sustainable Water Systems, Sustainable Energy Systems, High Purity Water Systems, Wireless Environmental Sensors and Lab-on-a-Chip projects. He has collaborative links both nationally and internationally and an excellent research track record. He has industrial experience of the design, installation, commissioning and validation of high purity water systems for Pharmaceutical and Semi-Conductor industries.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Environmental Politics
Dr Danny Marks is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Politics and Policy in the School of Law and Government of Dublin City University. Prior to this position, he was an Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at the Department of Asian and International Studies of City University of Hong Kong. He also was previously a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Urban Climate Resilience in Southeast Asia project at the Munk School of Global Affairs of the University of Toronto. Dr. Marks has spent a number of years conducting research and working in Southeast Asia, particularly in the field of environmental governance. He has worked for a number of organizations in the region, including the World Bank's East Asia and Pacific Governance Hub, the Rockefeller Foundation, ActionAid and the NGO Forum on Cambodia. Dr. Marks completed his PhD dissertation, An Urban Political Ecology of the 2011 Bangkok Floods, at the University of Sydney. He received his MA in International Affairs from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. His research interests are political ecology, environmental justice, climate governance, disaster risk reduction, with a focus on Southeast Asia.
Expertise
Much of Dr. Marks' work revolves around water governance and justice, in particularly how to improve water governance and outcomes for marginalised groups. With a focus on Southeast Asia, he has conducted research on a number of topics related to water including flooding, drought, coastal erosion, the relationship between corruption and wastewater, marine plastic pollution, hydropower dams, and aquaculture development. He has published on these topics in a number of leading academic journals including Political Geography, Sustainable Cities and Society, Habitat International, and Science of the Total Environment.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor in the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing
David Kinahan is an Assistant Professor in the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering. He completed a BEng in Aeronautical Engineering (2003) at University of Limerick. He joined Stokes Institute, UL and completed a PhD in 2008 focusing on high-throughput droplet microfluidics for DNA analysis. In late 2007 David joined Stokes Bio Ltd, a spin-out from Stokes Institute, as a Senior Engineer, and was later promoted to Engineering Manager leading a team of 10 engineers. Stokes Bio Ltd was acquired by Life Technologies for US$44m in April 2010. In January 2012 David joined DCU and has applied microfluidics to a wide range of application areas including human health (HIV diagnostics, CTC detection, CVD diagnostics, liver disease, early detection of bacterial meningitis) and point-of-use (plant pathogen detection, environmental monitoring etc). He was most recently a Group Leader within Fraunhofer Project Center at Dublin City University (FPC@DCU).
Dr Emma Coyle is a lecturer in organic and medicinal chemistry in the School of Chemical Sciences, Dublin City University (DCU), since 2014.
Dr Coyle received her BSc in Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and PhD in Organic Photochemistry from DCU. She then joined the School of Chemistry in the University of Nottingham as a research fellow in the groups of Prof. Rob Stockman and Dr Ross Denton, in collaboration with Prof. Sean Rigby in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering. In 2011, she rejoined DCU as a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Dr Chris O'Brien in the National Centre for Sensor Research (NCSR). Throughout these experiences she focused on research in organic synthesis, in particular development of novel methodologies or green routes to high-value molecules.
Expertise
Research Interests:
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor
- Member of the Future Energy Leaders
Dr James Carton graduated with B.Eng. in Manufacturing Engineering from Bolton St. Dublin Institute of Technology in 2005.
Following several years of industrial manufacturing experience, Dr Carton carried out his PhD research in Dublin City University, focussing on the research, design and development of Hydrogen & Fuel Cell technology, graduating in 2011. During his PhD research, Dr Carton gained many years of experience in bleeding edge technology development, completing projects with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA). At the Space Life Science Lab, John F. Kennedy Space Centre, Dr Carton performed structural and fluid analysis, design and development on a number of projects, including FASTRACK a hardware platform for microgravity experiments and ABRS a space-bound payload, which successfully launched in 2009 to the International Space Station (ISS).
Following his PhD research, Dr Carton joined ENBIO in 2011 to develop heat shield coatings with the European Space Agency (ESA). In 2012 Dr Carton engaged with ESA to secure contracts to set up an ISO9001 manufacturing facility in Ireland, to manufacture Heat-Shield components, for the Solar Orbiter Satellite (due to launch in 2018).
In 2013, Dr Carton re-joined Dublin City University to project manage an Enterprise Ireland project FCPM to develop and commercialise Fuel Cell technology. In 2015, Dr Carton was appointed Principal Investigator on a subsequent Enterprise Ireland project PureH2, developing an energy system utilising innovative catalysts for hydrogen production.
In 2017 Dr Carton was appointed Assistant Professor in Sustainable Energy in the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at Dublin City University.
Dr Carton is a member of the Future Energy Leaders (FEL-100) programme of the World Energy Council (WEC). Within this role Dr Carton is engaged with the Renewables System Integration and Scenarios Study Groups, and presently co-leader of The Climate Change Task Force, developing energy policy and strategies for industry and governments.
Expertise
Dr Carton's research focus is Energy sustainability through Innovative technology development; Fuel cell, Hydrogen, Power-to-Gas and Renewable energy. His team have invented and patented fuel cell materials and technologies to reduce their manufacture cost.
Dr Carton Lectures undergraduate and postgraduate students in Energy, Thermodynamics, Strength of Materials and engineering design modules, developing course lectures and demonstration techniques for a modern classroom.
Linda is currently an assistant professor of microbiology and teach across several degree programmes and years. My research is focused on understanding the interactions that occur between fungal and bacterial pathogens during biofilm infections. I am also interested in how mixed infections can alter antimicrobial tolerance during biofilm infections.
Marcos is an Assistant Professor in the DCU School of Communications. Prior to this position, he was a Lecturer in Media Studies in Maynooth University and Programme Director for the BA in Communications in Creative Media in Dundalk Institute of Technology. Marcos has previously worked as an architect in Sao Paulo and web designer in London, and has conducted research on citizen wellbeing, the impact of media technologies in urban space and performance art. during his PhD studies, Marcos conducted ethnographic research on performance art interventions in urban space that enable reflection on our use of technologies.
Dr Niamh Cullen is a geomorphologist. Her interests and expertise are centred around coastal geomorphology, particularly rock coasts, and the impacts of climate change on coasts and slope stability. Niamh holds a BA (Mod) in Earth Science, M.Sc. in Environmental Science and PhD in Geomorphology from the University of Dublin, Trinity College. Based in the School of History and Geography at DCU, Niamh teaches on the BAJH and BCES Programs. Current research projects include the ACCOMPLISH Project (Applying Citizen Science to a Coastal Monitoring Program for Landslides on Ireland's Shoreline) and CLImB (Climate, Storm Inundation, and Coastal Boulder Deposits in Western Ireland).
Expertise
Contact Details
Dr Paul Young completed his bachelor degree in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering (BA.BAI.) in Dublin University graduating with a 1st class honours in 1986. He was awarded his PhD for his thesis on the High Frequency Monitoring of Cutting Vibrations under the supervision of Prof Henry Rice and Prof John Fitzpatrick in 1991 by Dublin University. This research was partially funded through EOLAS (now Enterprise Ireland).
Job Titles:
- Lecturer in Fluid Mechanics in the School
Dr Yan Delauré is a lecturer in Fluid Mechanics in the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at Dublin City University (DCU). He received his PhD from University College Cork in 2001 and holds a Diplôme d'Ingénieur in Aeronautical Engineering from ESTACA, France and a M.Sc. in Marine Resources Development and Protection from Heriot Watt University, Scotland. Before joining DCU he worked for a period of five years as a research engineer at the Hydraulics and Maritime Research Centre in Cork until 2001 and held a one year post- doctoral research position at Trinity College Dublin.
Since 2002, he has lead a number of industry based applied research projects and has established a fundamental research activity with funding from Science Foundation Ireland, the Irish Research Council, Enterprise Ireland and the Environmental Protection Agency. He has co-authored 30 articles in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings.
Expertise
Yan's primary research interest is in computational flow modelling and in particular multiphase flow modelling for applications in process aeration and pumping of incompressible single phase and solid laden flows. He has developed in-house codes and worked with a range of commercial and open source solvers including parallel solvers for high performance computations.
Dr. Anne Morrissey graduated with a Chemical Engineering degree from University College Dublin and a PhD from NUI Galway. She has worked in and been carrying out research in the area of environmental protection since 1996. Prior to joining DCU, she worked with Smurfit Kappa group for more than 10 years in a variety of roles, including Environmental Manager with Smurfit Corrugated Cases. She has received funding to date from a variety of funders including Science Foundation Ireland, FP7, the Environmental Protection Agency and QUESTOR, and has supervised seven research students to completion. She was PI on two projects as part of the ATWARM FP7 project (Marie Curie ITN, No. 238273) and is currently the project manager of an EPA project focusing on the use of graphene related materials for water treatment.
Expertise
Since joining Dublin City University as a full time lecturer, Anne has been directing research in the area of water and wastewater treatment, with a particular emphasis on the removal of emerging contaminants from water by developing novel removal methods using absorption, photocatalysis and a combination of these. Recent work is focusing on using graphene and graphene composites for water treatment.
Dr. Aoife Morrin's field of research encompasses electroanalytical device development for environmental and biomedical applications. Specifically, her work entails developing materials with improved performances due, for example, to nanostructuring or via compositing. Materials of interest include stimuli-responsive materials such as conducting polymers, hydrogels and nanomaterials thereof. An example of a current research project is the fabrication of flow-through, responsive structures comprising these materials in microfluidic channels for use as dynamic chromatographic phases, sensors, drug delivery, switching valves, etc. Printed electronics is another area where Dr. Morrin has a research interest.
Expertise
Aoife has extensive experience in screen- and inkjet- printing of functional materials. Printing of these materials onto disposable electrode platforms for fabrication of sensing devices have been shown to have unique behaviours and are being applied to several specialised electrochemical sensing applications spanning areas such as urea in serum, ammonia refridgerant monitoring, glucose monitoring in sweat and e. coli detection.
Dr. Brian Freeland completed his degree in Mechatronic Engineering in 2005, MSc in Mechanical with Bioprocessing Engineering in 2009 and PhD in 2020. His PhD work surrounds process control and optimisation in the field of nanomaterials. He has worked applying Process Analytical Tools for several years to control and optimise Bioprocesses. He has several years' experience working as an automation engineer in the biopharmaceutical and aerospace sensor industries.
He received a post of Lecturer of Bioprocess Engineering in the School of Biotechnology in 2015 and Assistant Professor of Bioprocess Engineering in 2020. He is Co-Lead in the Grain-4-Lab project and a principle investigator in the Advanced Processing Technology Research Centre at DCU. Currently, his main research interests are bioprocess development, PAT, bioprocess control, automation and biomaterials.
Expertise
Applying Process Analytical Technology (PAT) tools to understand and control complex systems including Bioprocessing & nano fabrication. Using On-line spectroscopy, Biocalorimetry, Gas Analysis, soft-sensors & ANN.
Job Titles:
- Business Development Manager
Carolyn is a Business Development Manager within Invent - DCU's Technology Transfer Office and works closely with DCU's Research Hubs and external industrial and commercial partners to develop collaborations and commercial exploitation of DCU's innovative technologies through licensing and the development of new start- up companies.
Corné Muilwijk started as an Assistant Professor in the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at Dublin City University (DCU) in 2021, where he is teaching modules in Thermodynamics and Turbomachinery. He received a BSc.
degree in Molecular Science & Technology (2012, Leiden, NL) and obtained an MSc. degree in Chemical Engineering at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands in 2014. For his MSc. thesis project, he modelled chemical reactive pollutants in urban areas by means of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). He then pursued a PhD degree on the experimental characterization of bubbly flows in the Bernal Institute at the University of Limerick (Ireland, 2020). He spent a substantial part of his time on the design and construction of a pilot-scale bubble column and showed great diligence to optimize the bubble formation process for controlling bubble size distributions. He developed experimental and analytical skills for image acquisition and processing, digital image correlation, bubble acoustics, Laser Doppler Velocimetry and dual-tip optical fibre probe measurements.
After his PhD, he started as a postdoctoral researcher in DCU, where he first designed and engineered a test facility to study cavitation in centrifugal pumps. He then developed a miniaturized heat pump prototype to study flow and temperature distributions inside the heat pump core. In this work-in-progress, Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence (P-LIF) will be used.
Expertise:
Corné's research interests are focussed on the experimental analysis of multiphase flows (bubbles or droplets) and the non- ideal flow behaviour of e.g. biomass, and thermal fluids. With his experience in CFD modelling, he is dedicated to performing experiments for fundamental understanding and developments of such models.
Dr. David O'Connor is currently an assistant professor within the school of Chemical sciences in Dublin City University, where he is involved in physical chemistry undergraduate lecturing and laboratory demonstration.
He formerly worked at Technological University Dublin (2015-2021) and has previously held post-doctoral positions at the University of Denver (Marie Curie Fellowship) and the University College Cork, which involved numerous field and laboratory studies on atmospherically relevant species and processes.
Job Titles:
- Director of the Centre for the Advancement
Dr. Eilish McLoughlin is the Director of the Centre for the Advancement of Science and Mathematics Teaching and Learning (CASTeL) and an academic member of the School of Physical Sciences at Dublin City University (DCU).
She is coordinator of the FP7 ESTABLISH project and a member of the coordinating team on the FP7 SAILS project. She obtained her Ph.D. (2000) in Surface Physics and is a member of the Institute of Physics and a Chartered Physicist. She was a recipient of the DCU President's Award for Teaching and Learning and also a recipient of the Teaching Fellowship in 2005 and received a National Award for Teaching Excellence in 2010. She is actively involved in teacher education at both pre-service and in-service levels as well as physics education to undergraduate physics and science students. Her research interests are in the implementation of innovative teaching approaches, such as inquiry based learning and interdisciplinary approaches and the effective use of technology in education for the teaching and learning of physics/science at all levels. She has served as an advisor to the Irish Government on initiatives in science and mathematics and as an expert evaluator of the EU FP7 programme. She has successfully received funding for her activities in science education from national and international funding agencies. She is former chair and current co- chair of the Institute of Physics (IOP) in Ireland Education group and a former member of the IOP Education Board for UK and Ireland and has been the National Coordinator for Science on Stage since 2002.
Expertise
Eilish's expertise lies in the implementation of innovative teaching approaches, such as inquiry based learning and interdisciplinary approaches and the effective use of technology in education for the teaching and learning of physics/science at all levels.
Job Titles:
- Adjunct Professor
- Fellow
- Technical Advisor
- a Team of IBM Researchers
- Adjunct Professor of Physics at Arizona State University
- Fellow With IBM Research
- Researchers
- Technical Advisor for the River and Estuary Observatory Network
Dr. Kolar is an IBM Fellow with IBM Research focused on environmental monitoring and management. He has worked across several IBM divisions in technical, management, and executive roles to advance cross-industry application of new technologies, including advanced analytical methods, information and knowledge management, pervasive/embedded real-time intelligent systems, and sensor-based, cyberphysical systems. Dr. Kolar currently leads a team of IBM researchers on The Jefferson Project at Lake George, NY, an integrated environmental observatory and modeling system. Dr. Kolar also led the SmartBay Galway project with the Marine Institute of Ireland, an underwater acoustic monitoring project for sustainable ocean energy with the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, and was the technical advisor for the River and Estuary Observatory Network (REON) at the Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries in New York.
Dr. Jennifer Gaughran graduated from the School of Physical Sciences in Dublin City University in 2011 and continued to complete her PhD in the area of flow control systems on centrifugal microfluidic platforms for nucleic acid testing in 2016. She has worked as a Research Assistant in the Biomedical Diagnostics Institute, a secondary school science teacher and as the APT Centre Manager. In 2017, she join the School of Physical Sciences in DCU as an Assistant Professor in Bio-/Biomedical Physics. In 2018, she was appointed as the Chair of the Physics with Biomedical Science degree programme.
Expertise
Jennifer's research has focused on the design and testing of microfluidic devices for rapid DNA and RNA detection. She is interested in microfluidic lab-on-a-chip technologies, micro/nano fabrication, advanced flow control within microsystems and novel materials characterisation. She also works in sensor development for point-of-use technologies. She is the winner of the IOPI Rosse Medal, National Thesis in 3 and Tell-It-Straight competitions in 2014 and was shortlisted for the IOP Bell- Burnell Award in 2016.
Dr. Jenny Lawler graduated with a BE in Chemical Engineering from University College Dublin, subsequently completing a PhD in the School of Biotechnology at DCU in the area of membrane separations. She worked as an engineering consultant for a number of years on a variety of multimillion euro projects, prior to returning to DCU to take up a lecturing position in bioprocess engineering in 2010, where she was Chair of the MSc in Bioprocess Engineering for three years. She has published her research in high impact journals in the areas of membrane and environmental technologies and water treatment, and serves on the editorial boards of international journals including Separation and Purification Technology, Desalination and Water Treatment, Membranes and Chemical Engineering and Processing. Her research group is currently funded by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Irish Research Council, and Science Foundation Ireland.
Expertise
Dr. Lawler's research in the water arena focuses on the development of environmental technologies and membrane strategies, including micro-, ultra- and nanofiltration, to environmental problems including water and wastewater treatment systems. She is particularly interested in the targeting of emerging pollutants such as pharmaceuticals and nanomaterials, and she has expertise in the mathematical modeling of bioprocesses, including the application of artificial neural networks. Her research interests are diverse, ranging from the development of phase inversion and electrospun based inorganic- organic hybrid membranes for ultra- and nanofiltration applications, development of nanostructured surfaces for antifouling applications, and the development of nanostructured composites based on graphene related materials for adsorption and pollutant removal.
Presently, John is a Swedish government member of the Committee for Socio-economic Analysis (SEAC) at the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) and Investigator at the Swedish Chemicals Agency. In these roles, he is responsible for evaluating the socioeconomic consequences of restricting and authorising the use of hazardous chemicals by industry across a range of sectors in Europe. Prior to this John was Chief Economist at the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI).
Kieran Nolan carried out his PhD at York University, Toronto Canada, under the supervision of Professor Clifford C. Leznoff. After completing his PhD in 1996 Kieran worked in both the pharmaceutical and packaging industry until 1998 when he joined the NCSR at DCU. In 2001 Kieran became a Lecturer in the School of Chemical Sciences at DCU and Senior Lecturer in 2012. Kieran was a founding member of the DCU UDRI Environtech, that was established in February 2011 and in October 2014, Kieran became the Head of School of Chemical Sciences at DCU.
Expertise
The Nolan research group has been intensively involved in the area of environmental sciences since its inception in 2001. In the past, Dr Nolan's group has specialized in the development of new chemoreceptors for application in environmental sensing and extraction of heavy metals from waste streams. More recently, the Nolan group has turned its attention to the development of new ‘Green' synthetic technologies, with particular emphasis on the development of new energy and water efficient microflow photochemical reactors. The Nolan group also specialises in the design and preparation of new photocatalysts and integrated photocatalytic composites such as dye-TiO2, activated carbon- TiO2, Graphene-TiO2 and mineral-graphene composites for application in the removal of pollutants from industrial waste water streams. Dr Nolan has also supervised/co-supervisor 20 PhD students to completion since 2001.
Job Titles:
- Lecturer in the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing
Dr. Lorna Fitzsimons (BEng, PhD) is a Lecturer in the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Dublin City University. Currently, she is coordinator of an Irish EPA Medium Scale project (2013-2015) located between DCU and NUIG. The focus of this project is to benchmark and optimise the resource efficiency of Irish Waste Water Treatment Plants (WWTP) using a multi-faceted approach (LCA, Exergy Analysis and Process Control). Other research projects and interests include desalination, the use of exergy analysis to optimise the energy consumption of water treatment and purification processes (desalination, semiconductor manufacturing Ultra-Pure Water plants, Wastewater Treatment Plants), and several energy efficiency and environmental monitoring projects. She previously worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Marine and Environmental Sensing Technology Hub (MESTECH) where the focus of her research was environmental monitoring and environmental sensor development.
Expertise
Lorna's expertise is in the area of Exergy Analysis and Process Control in relation to water treatment and purification processes.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor in Analytical Chemistry at the School
Dr. Mercedes Vázquez is Assistant Professor in Analytical Chemistry at the School of Chemical Sciences, Dublin City University (DCU), since 2014. She is also a Principal Investigator at the National Centre for Sensor Research (NCSR), the Advanced Processing Technology Research Centre (APT) and the Water Institute (WI), and a Funded Investigator at I-Form. She received her MSc in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Oviedo (Spain) in 1998. In 1999, she joined the Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry at Åbo Akademi University (Turku, Finland) as an ERASMUS exchange student, where she continued till obtaining her PhD from Åbo Akademi in 2005. During this period, she worked on the development of potentiometric ion sensors based on conducting polymers for various applications such as chemical process control and clinical analysis. In 2006, she took up a postdoctoral position within the Centre for Bioanalytical Sciences (CBAS) at DCU, where she primarily focused on the development of analytical methods and technologies for the rapid screening of very complex media in biopharmaceutical processes. She then joined the Irish Separation Science Cluster (ISSC), DCU, in 2009, where she coordinated a research program focused on the development of novel microfluidic platforms for a wide range of (bio)analytical applications, including biotechnology and environmental analysis.
Expertise
Miniaturisation and integration of analytical systems for environmental monitoring, point-of-care diagnostics and in-process quality control Microfluidics and Lab-on-a-CD devices for sample preparation, preconcentration and analysis Fast prototyping methods such as 3D printing, integration of particulate/monolithic stationary phases into microfluidic channels, miniaturised electrochemical sensors (amperometric, potentiometric, conductimetric) and dual detection systems, low-cost optical detection systems, fast separation methods by capillary HPLC and microchip electrophoresis.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor in the School of Electronic Engineering, Dublin
Dr. Muhammad Intizar Ali is an Assistant Professor in the School of Electronic Engineering, Dublin City University. His research interests include Data Analytics, Internet of Things (IoT), Stream Query Processing, Data Integration, Distributed and Federated Machine Learning, and Knowledge Graphs. Dr. Ali's research outcomes have been successfully applied in the domain of Smart Cities, Smart Manufacturing, Smart Farming, and e-Health. He has been collaborating with large scale Science Foundation Ireland funded research centres including Insight Centre for Data Analytics, Confirm Centre for Smart Manufacturing, and VistaMIlk Centre. He is also actively involved in various EU funded and industry-funded projects aimed at providing IoT enabled adaptive intelligence for smart applications. Dr. Ali has authored over 100 research articles, including journal publications, conferences & workshops proceedings, and posters/demos in renowned journals and international conferences. Prior to joining DCU, he worked as an Adjunct Lecturer, Research Fellow, and Research Unit Leader of Reasoning, Querying, and IoT Data Analytics Unit at the Insight Centre for Data Analytics, National University of Ireland, Galway. Dr. Ali obtained his Ph.D. (with distinction) from Vienna University of Technology, Austria in 2011.
Expertise
Internet of Things (IoT)
Dr. Prince Anandarajah received the B.Eng (Electronic Engineering) degree from University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 1992. Subsequently, he worked as an Instructor/Maintenance Engineer at the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology. On completing his M.Eng (1998), he joined the Radio and Optical Communications Group at DCU where he obtained his PhD degree (2003). He then worked as a postdoctoral researcher until 2006 and later as a Research Officer with the High Speed Devices and Systems centre which is part of the Rince institute (2007). He then held a DCU senior research fellow position until 2016 and is currently a lecturer with the School of Electronic Engineering at DCU.
Expertise
His main research interests include high-speed optical communications, photonic sensing, direct modulation techniques, generation and optimization of optical frequency combs and short optical pulses, spectrally efficient modulation formats and radio-over-fibre distribution systems. In 2016, he was presented with the DCU president's research award for outstanding research achievements. He has published over 200 articles in internationally peer reviewed journals and conferences and is also a holder of 6 international patents, 2 of which have been licenced by industry. He is also a founder and a director of a spin-off company called Pilot Photonics. He is a senior member of the IEEE.
Job Titles:
- Coordinator of the Celsius Research Group at DCU
- Lecturer in Communications at Dublin City University
Dr. Pádraig Murphy is Lecturer in Communications at Dublin City University, Programme Chair of the MSc in Science Communication and Director of the DCU Societal Impact Platform. His teaching and research interests include science communication, Science and Technology Studies, public participation in, and public and media representations of, science and technology and Responsible Research and Innovation policy. An environmental science graduate, Dr Murphy's background also includes content management in elearning. He is author of Biotechnology, Education and Life Politics: Debating Genetic Futures from School to Society (Routledge, 2014).
Dr. Murphy is also coordinator of the Celsius research group at DCU and part of the Management Board of DCU Community Knowledge Exchange, a ‘science shop' based in DCU. He is also co-chair of Campus Engage and Work Package Leader on the Framework 7 project ‘PERARES', a project which connects community-based research across Europe.
Expertise
His current research and writing has focused on deliberative and participatory dialogue models for biotechnology, nanotechnology, and sustainable technologies, as well as how such technologies can be part of a policy of anticipatory governance. He managed a citizens' jury on the trialling of the GM potato in Ireland - the #gmpotato Community of Inquiry project - funded by the Irish Environmental Protection Agency.
Susan Hegarty began her interests in water while working on the Groundwater Protection Scheme for Kilkenny in the Geological Survey of Ireland, mapping the Quaternary deposits - one of the keys to determining the vulnerability of groundwater to pollutants. Her interest in Irish landscape evolution since the last glaciation has led her to carry out research on the changing climate in Ireland over the Holocene, particularly with reference to the southeast of Ireland. She is passionate about communicating the subject of Geography to students and to a wider audience, and has been involved in various TVdocumentaries over the past five years.
Expertise
Groundwater vulnerability mapping, Irish geomorphology (particularly glacial and fluvial), hydrology and hydrogeology.
Dr. Thomas McCloughlin is a chartered biologist and lecturer in science education in the School of STEM Education, Innovation and Global Studies, DCU Institute of Education. Tom is a graduate of Ulster University majoring in hydrobiology, crop productivity, and microbiology. His research interests in biology concern fish parasitology and assemblages of organisms within ecosystems. His PhD concerns biology education.
Tom has taught biology at primary, secondary and tertiary level and he is actively engaged in research into hydrobiology education: he has included hydrobiology in his education courses throughout his teaching career especially in terms of schools' local environment: e.g., tidal mudflats in Dundalk bay, simulating tidal ecosystems in the laboratory; parasites of Littorina saxatilis on rocky shores; Diplostomid parasites of freshwater fish including farmed fish.
Tom works with the national Marine Institute, Oranmore in the Explorers' Programme and he is currently working with the MI on assessing "Marine Literacy" and he is a member of the Marine Biological Association and the Royal Society of Biology. He has wide experience in developing educational programmes.
Expertise
Practical (wet chemistry) techniques of water analysis especially for nitrate, phosphate, dissolved oxygen analyses, combining with data- logging techniques,
Fish biology evolution, and aquaculture,
Marine / freshwater ecology, analyses of ecosystems, biomass production, wastewater analysis and treatment.
Constructivist teaching & learning, including but not exclusive to European Projects such as Erasmus Plus and formerly Comenius. Design of learning programmes for children 4 - 16 (K12) and young adults. Assessing programmes of intervention and evaluation.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor in the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing
Nigel Kent is an Assistant Professor in the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering. He completed a B.Eng in Mechatronic Engineering (2002) at Dublin City University (DCU). He joined the National Centre for Sensor Research in 2002 as a research engineer specialising in polymeric microfluidic chip design and manufacture for, primarily, environmental monitoring. In 2005 he began working with the Biomedical Diagnostics Institute and in parallel undertook a PhD in collaboration with the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland in the area of platelet function diagnostics. In 2009 Nigel moved to, what is now, Technological University Dublin where he continued to apply his microfluidic platform expertise across, primarily, coagulation monitoring and bacterial detection. During that time, he returned to DCU as a senior research fellow in autonomous environmental monitoring and additive manufacturing for industrial applications. In 2018 Nigel moved to Institute of Technology Carlow where he was director of the Centre of Research and Enterprise in Engineering for the Institute.
Job Titles:
- Professor in Genetics at the School
Anne Parle-McDermott is Professor in Genetics at the School of Biotechnology and is currently Head of School and the DCU Biotechnology Lead for Biodesign Europe. She is Principal Investigator of the Molecular Genetics Laboratory and a PI of the National Institute of Cellular Biotechnology and the Water Institute. Her research interests are in the complementary areas of functional genetics as it relates to human health and the application of DNA-based methodologies for diagnostics and biosensor development. She teaches a range of modules on Eukaryotic genetics and genomics and associated nucleic acid based molecular technologies.
Expertise
Research Interests:
Prof Anne Parle-McDermott is Principal Investigator (PI) of the Molecular Genetics Laboratory based in the School of Biotechnology. She is also a PI of the National Institute of Cellular Biotechnology and the Water Institute at DCU. Her research interests lie within the domains of basic and health-related research and the application of DNA-based methodologies for diagnostics and biosensor development.
The basic and health-related aspects of her research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanism of how folate nutrition plays such an important role in human health ranging from pregnancy to ageing using a combination of genetics, genomics, biochemistry and cell biology methodologies. This research will have relevance for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of common human disease.
The applied aspects to her research are centred around DNA-based technologies for diagnostics and biosensor development. Prof Parle-McDermott has over 25 years of experience working with DNA and the concepts, expertise and this wealth of knowledge are now being applied to a range of diagnostic and biosensing challenges including species detection in environmental DNA (eDNA), contamination in the food and beverage industry and human health monitoring.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Economics at Dublin City University Business School
Rob Gillanders is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Dublin City University Business School. He holds a PhD in Economics from University College Dublin. Prior to working at DCUBS he worked in Finland at Hanken School of Economics and Aalto University.
Rob's main research interest is corruption but he is also interested in issues relating to regulation, gender, FDI, and institutions/governance in general. Rob's research has been published in journals including The Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Economics of Governance, International Interactions, International Tax and Public Finance, The Journal of Development Studies, The Journal of International Development, Kyklos, The Manchester School, and Review of World Economics.
Rob is interested in working with graduate students in his specific research areas and in the fields of Development, Political Economy, and Public Economics more generally.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Computing at Dublin City University
Job Titles:
- Independent Freelance Writer and Journalist