Curriculum Vitae

Experience

Technical Officer

DIAS Dunsink Observatory
2021 – present

I lead development of space weather forecasting applications and support research activities within the DIAS Astronomy and Astrophysics Section. I organise education and public engagement activities at Dunsink Observatory, and am also a Visiting Teaching Fellow at Trinity College Dublin.

Research Fellow

Trinity College Dublin
2016 – 2021

Principal Investigator European Office of Aerospace Research and Development research to operations project to improve solar eruption prediction using terrestrial weather forecasting methods. Principal Investigator of Science Foundation Ireland Discover Astronomical Midlands Project, engaging rural communities with astronomy through the Irish Low Frequency Array Radio Telescope. Project Board Member of the Horizon 2020 PRE-EST and FLARECAST projects, contributor to the FP7 HELCATS project. Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow.

Research Scientist

Met Office
2013 – 2016

Working with academics, forecasters, and end-users, I transitioned basic research to operational space weather forecasting. My main research areas were in solar physics (H2020 FLARECAST project) and thermospheric modelling (FP7 ATMOP project), trying to improve our understanding of the science behind the forecasts and feeding this back into the operational predictive models.

Education

PhD Solar Physics, 2013, Trinity College Dublin

MSc (Dist) Space Science, 2008, University College London

BA Hons Mod Physics and Astrophysics, 2007, Trinity College Dublin

Skills

Research interests

Solar physics (solar active region evolution, solar flare onset, coronal mass ejection onset, coronal hole detection); heliospheric physics (solar wind propagation); atmospheric physics (thermospheric drag modelling), operational space weather monitoring and forecasting.