Professor Ray Bates, MRIA – Academy Nominee
Ray Bates is Adjunct Professor of Meteorology at UCD. He was formerly Professor of Meteorology at the Niels Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen and a Senior Scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre. His research interests are in the theory and modeling of the global climate. He is particularly interested in climate feedbacks- the mechanisms that keep the global climate stable at its current equilibrium and that determine its sensitivity to external forcing such as that due to CO2 increase. He is also interested in the influence of solar variations on climate. He is a Member of the Royal Irish Academy and of the Academia Europaea. UCD Meteorology and Climate Centre www.raybates.net
He was awarded the Vilhelm Bjerknes Medal of the European Geosciences Union in April 2009.
Mr Oisín Coghlan – Friends of the Earth
Oisín Coghlan has been Director of Friends of the Earth Ireland since 2005. Friends of the Earth’s work is focused on Irish climate change policy. Oisín is on the Board of the Irish Environmental Network and represents the Environmental Pillar in social partnership. He was appointed to the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) in May 2009. Before joining Friends of the Earth, Oisín worked for 10 years in the areas of overseas aid and human rights, including stints as the policy and advocacy coordinator for Christian Aid Ireland, coordinator of the Latin America Solidarity Centre (LASC), a community organizer in the banana belt in Belize and as a product manager with Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International in Bonn. He has been on the Board of Fairtrade Mark Ireland since 2002. Oisín’s primary degree was Sociology and Political Science in Trinity and he did a Masters in International Relations in DCU.
Ms Valerie Cummins - UCC
Valerie Cummins B.Sc., M.Sc. (Marine Geography) is the director of the Coastal and Marine Resources Centre, University College Cork. This involves the coordination of 30 research staff working on over 20 EU and nationally funded research projects and commercial contracts. She is currently reading for a PhD on organisational tools for sustainability science in coastal zone management.
Her research interests cover a range of coastal governance issues including public participation, capacity building for coastal management, the science and policy interface and ecosystems frameworks. As the co-ordinator of the EU Interreg IVB Imcore project, she is currently leading an initiative to develop coastal adaptation strategies for nine locations across north-west Europe using a range of scenario building and technical tools. She is a member of the Scientific Steering Committee for the FP6 SPICOSA and Conscience projects dealing with systems approach to coastal assessment and coastal erosion governance respectively. She chairs the Irish national coastal network, I-CoNet and has successfully delivered a number of reviews on ICZM for government bodies. At the national level, she is also coordinating an EPA STRIVE project on adaptive management for coastal climate change. Locally, she chairs the Cork Harbour Management Focus Group.
Ms. Cummins coordinates the delivery of the module ‘ICZM – policy and practice’ to UCC’s Geography masters students. She contributes to the editorial panel of the international Marine Policy journal published by Elsevier and is a member of the Marine Geography Commission of the International Geographic Union. She is a member of the LOICZ international scientific steering committee on Coastal Governance.
Mr Trevor Donnellan -Teagasc
Trevor is an economist and Principal Research Officer at Rural Economy Research Centre (RERC) Teagasc (The Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority) and has been a staff member there since 1998.
He is member of the FAPRI-Ireland agriculture and environment policy modelling team working at RERC. He specialising in modelling the economics of agricultural markets including the environmental impacts of the agricultural sector, particularly in the area of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
He has worked with colleagues in the Environmental Protection Agency on the provision of projection of future levels of GHG emissions from the agriculture sector and has also conducted scenario analysis on the impact of policy changes on the future level of GHG emission from the agriculture sector in Ireland. This work allows the projection of the future levels of emissions from the sector over a ten year time horizon under varying policy and technology assumptions.
Alison Donnelly
Alison Donnelly is a research lecturer in the Centre for the Environment at Trinity College Dublin. She leads the Phenology Research Group, which is investigating the impact of climate change on life-cycle events in plants and animals. She also collaborates on the EU BRIDGE (Sustainable urban planning decision support accounting for urban metabolism) project. Prior to this she was a research fellow in TCD and developed environmental indicators for use in Strategic Environmental Assessment.
Dr Rowan Fealy – NUIM
Dr. Rowan Fealy is a Research-Lecturer in the Department of Geography, National University of Ireland, Maynooth (http://geography.nuim.ie/staff/fealyrowan). Rowan’s research interests include the development of methodologies for deriving probabilistic climate scenarios from statistically downscaled simulations. More recently, he has been involved in quantifying the uncertainties in downscaled climate scenarios due to regionalisation technique, including both statistical and dynamical methods, with a view to developing more robust scenarios for decision-making. Rowan’s interests also include the urban climate/environment and, with colleagues from UCD, maintains an urban meteorological network based in Dublin city. In addition to a number of meteorological stations, this network includes three eddy covariance towers, measuring CO2 and turbulent fluxes arising from the city.
Dr Pat Goodman - DIT
Dr Goodman obtained an honours degree In experimental Physics (UCD 1984), and . then an MSc by research, (in Atmospheric Physics: aerosols and condensation nuclei processes in the atmosphere).Dr Goodman then worked with Met Eireann where qualified as a meteorologist. He returned to academia in 1989, taking up a post at DIT. He undertook a PhD in the area of air pollution and health effects.
The methodologies and techniques developed in the air pollution studies have found applications in the area of Climate and health.Dr Goodman has published a number of research papers in the area of climate and health effects, and has been part of a multi-centre EU project in the area of climate and health.He would bring an expertise to the committee in the area of the health effects of climate change, which would be complimentary to the other expertise on the committee.
Dr Francis McGovern – EPA
Dr Frank McGovern, received his Ph.D. in atmospheric physics from the National University of Ireland Galway. He has more than twelve years research experience in the area of climate change and air pollution. He joined the EPA in 2000 where he holds the position of Senior Scientific Officer in the Climate Change Unit. He is a member of EU Expert Group on Climate Scientific and a regular delegate to meetings of the Un Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Mr Ray McGrath – Met Éireann
A Physics graduate of TCD, I have spent more than 30 years working in the weather/climate area, principally with Met Éireann but also with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) in the UK. I am currently head of the Research and Applications Division in Met Éireann supervising research related to operational weather forecasting and climate change. I was the Project Manager for the C4I climate modeling project (2003-2007); a summary of relevant work and publications can be found in the report "Ireland in a warmer world: scientific predictions of the Irish climate in the twenty-first century" available at http://www.met.ie/publications. I coordinate Met Éireann’s research input to the ENSEMBLES and EC-EARTH international projects on climate change; I am on the EC-EARTH Steering Committee. Met Éireann plans to run a comprehensive series of global climate simulations with the EC-EARTH model for consideration in the next IPCC Assessment Report
Professor Fraser Mitchell – TCD
Fraser Mitchell is associate professor of Quaternary Ecology at Trinity College Dublin. The main focus of his research is on long term environmental change and past climate variability. He has conducted his research across Europe, in Australia and USA. He completed his first degree in Galway, PhD in TCD followed by five years as a higher scientific officer in the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute in Edinburgh before returning to Dublin in 1990.
Dr Glenn Nolan Marine Institute
Physical oceanographer by background having undertaken a MSc on processes in Galway Bay and a PhD on the shelf circulation west of Ireland. Dr. Nolan has 12 years experience as an oceanographer and in the management and roll-out of oceanographic and marine climate projects. Until recently responsible for oceanography at the Marine Institute, he has headed the newly formed Marine Climate Change team at the Marine Institute since late 2007. His own research is primarily in the area of coastal processes and in the descriptive physical oceanography of the Irish region having conducted more than 30 research cruises in Irish waters, the Caribbean and the sub-polar regions, 12 as chief scientist. Committees
ICES Working Group on Oceanic Hydrography (2004-Present) (co-chair since 2008). Member of the ICES Steering Group on Climate Change
EuroGOOS Board Member (2005-present).
Dr. Brian Ó Gallachóir - UCC
Dr. Brian Ó Gallachóir is a Lecturer in Energy Engineering in University College Cork and Principal Investigator in Energy Modelling and Policy Research. The focus of his research is on techno-economic modelling of energy demand and energy systems optimisation. An applied sciences graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology, Brian moved to Cork in 1990 to carry out a Doctoral research programme in ocean wave energy. Brian co-ordinates UCC’s taught Masters Programme in Sustainable Energy and was directly involved in developing Ireland’s first undergraduate BE degree in Energy Engineering at UCC. He provides strategic advice to Sustainable Energy Ireland’s Energy Policy Statistical Support Unit. He represents Ireland on the International Energy Agency ETSAP Executive Committee, is a member of the Irish Energy Research Council and the Technical Analysis Steering Group on Climate Change and Energy Security.
Professor Colin D O’Dowd – NUIG
Colin O’Dowd is Professor at the School of Physics and Director of the Centre for Climate & Air Pollution Studies, Environment change Institute, National University of Ireland Galway. His areas of research are aerosol formation, transformation and climate effects and air-sea exchange. He has coordinated many national and international research projects. In 2004 he was awarded the Smoluchowski Award for aerosol research and in 2008 he was awarded a D.Sc. by University of Manchester. He resided as joint Editor- in – Chief of Journal of Geophysical Research (Atmospheres) from 2000-2007.
Professor Margaret O’Mahony
Margaret O’Mahony is Professor of Civil Engineering, Bursar, Head of the Department of Civil, Structural & Environmental Engineering and Director of the Centre for Transport Research at TCD.
She is a Fellow of TCD and a Fellow of: Engineers Ireland, the Institution of Highway and Transportation Engineers, the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport and the Institute of Demolition Engineers.
Her research interests focus on transport policy and planning, the impacts of transport on the environment, external costs of transport, and transport infrastructure design and construction. She is currently leading the input for TCD to a cross-university Graduate Programme (structured 4-year PhD programme) in the Environment.
Author of over 100 publications, she was a member of the board of the Railway Procurement Agency for four years during the design and construction of the Luas lines. She has served on the Scientific Committee of the European Environment Agency
Professor Julian Orford
Julian Orford is Profesor of Physical Geography at Queen’s University,Belfast, where he was Head of the School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology (2005-09). His research has concentrated on the dynamics and development of gravel beaches and barriers in Britain, Ireland and eastern Canada, in particular with respect to relative sea-level change and sediment supply. Over the last decade, he has been working on the responses of a wide range of coastal morphologies (barriers, dunes and marshes) to both sea-level change and increased storminess related to climatic change. In particular he is focusing on the trigger role of extreme events on coastal morphology, in particular beach/dune interactions and swash-aligned gravel barrier behaviour. His research work on coastal function and behaviour has stimulated collaboration with EU R&D, UK Government agencies, NGOs and coastal consultancies over the future of the UK coastline and infrastructure.
Dr Andrew Parnell - UCD
Dr Andrew Parnell is a Lecturer in Statistics and member of the Meteorology and Climate Centre at University College Dublin. His main research interest is in uncertainty and palaeoclimate, in particular reconstructions of palaeoclimate from proxy data such as pollen. Large changes in past climate can be shown to have occurred in the pollen records from numerous Irish sites; his current research goal is in tying such sites together to create a pan-European climate history for the last 15,000 years. His related interests include climatological extremes, for which he recently chaired a European Science Foundation high-level research conference, and historical sea-level, for which he obtained a PhD from the University of Sheffield. He has been a lecturer at UCD since 2008.
Sue Scott – ESRI Affiliate
Sue Scott’s work has concentrated on environmental issues including pricing, taxation, demand projections, efficiency, investment and distributional issues applied to policy on climate, energy, water, waste, agriculture, forestry and transport. While head of the ESRI's Environment Policy Research Centre her group laid research foundations for many environmental issues in Ireland today. Her work has been published in Energy Economics, Utilities Policy, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management and JSSISI, in books published by Gill and MacMillan, Ashgate, Springer, Edward Elgar, Oxford University Press, the Central Statistics Office and the European Commission, and on the OECD and World Bank websites as well as by the ESRI. Her book the Polluter Pays Principle provided an overview of the scope for good pricing and efficiency in Ireland. Carbon taxes, competitiveness, water infrastructure, and weight-based waste charging are followed up in recent publications. She is a Research Affiliate of the ESRI having retired as Associate Research Professor in 2009.
Mr Tom Sheridan – Met Eireann
Tom Sheridan is Assistant Director (Scientific and Technical Support) in Met Éireann. Relevant responsibilities include the organisation’s observational programmes including acquisition and processing (quality control, homogenisation etc.) of climatological and environmental observations as well as instrumentation, analysis of the observational record and the production of climatological reports. He is also responsible for climate prediction through dynamic modelling and the study of impacts through application of the output of such models. The aims of the organisation in these areas are achieved in many cases in cooperation with Irish and international groups. Other items within his area of responsibility include operational numerical weather prediction, applications units (agricultural and marine), IT operations and the Valentia geophysical observatory (a Global Atmospheric Watch station). He has worked in forecasting (both as operational forecaster and as manager), satellite applications, commercial meteorology and climatology. He represents Met Éireann or The State in a number of international fora.
Mr Tony Smyth – OPW
Tony Smyth is Assistant Secretary & Director of Engineering Services and Chief Engineer in the Office of Public Works. He has responsibility for the professional Engineering Services and for Flood Risk Management, for which the OPW is the Government’s lead agency.
He is also chair of the OPW Safety Management Advisory committee and Chair of the Risk Management Committee of the OPW.
He is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of Engineers Ireland and member of the Irish Academy of Engineering.
Educational Qualifications:
B Eng from NUI, Galway
M.Eng.Sc. from NUI, Galway in Engineering Hydrology
M. Sc. from TCD in Strategic Management, Public Sector Programme.
Mr Micheal Young – DOEHLG
Micheal Young is a Senior Adviser in the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. His role is to provide technical advice and support for the formulation of environment policy in the areas of climate change, air quality and noise. During his ten years in the DEHLG Micheal has participated in environmental policy making and law making at national, European and international levels and been active in fostering national research to inform policy development. Micheal graduated from UCD with a B.Sc. in physics and computer science and also received an M.Sc. in environmental policy from the LSE. Prior to joining the DEHLG, Micheal worked in the environment sector initially for an environmental consultancy and then later for local government.