Profile

I am not sure what to say about myself – I am trained as a physicist, but am generally interested in life and society, and particularly in building infrastructure for research and education in Ireland. I love the way that Ireland is becoming increasingly multicultural, and that people from all over the world are coming to Ireland to study and work.

I did a degree in physics, followed by a PhD in Trinity College Dublin, mostly working on understanding the interaction of light with materials, and  what determines their optical properties. I spent over four years working in Germany, followed by a short spell in Japan, before returning to Dublin, to work in DIT.

In DIT, I have spent a lot of effort developing the infrastructure for research, and was involved in establishing the FOCAS (Facility for Optical Characterisation and Spectroscopy) Research Institute, which I now Head. It is essentially a “one stop shop” for spectroscopy and microscopy, and provides support for research in physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, food science. The interdisciplinary environment enabled me to expand my research into exploring the interactions of nanomaterials with cells, and the sue of spectroscopy for analysis of cells and tissues, with potential biomedical applications.

I do not lecture, and so I do not have a typical day. My work varies from more management and administrative issues, to mundane thing such as dealing with the leak in the basement, to contributing to research management in the DIT, to discussing research with PhD students and colleagues and collaborators.