THE ERI
WELCOMES…
Emer Dennehy
On graduating with a Degree in Electrical and Electronic
Engineering (BE(Elec)) from University College Cork in 2001,
Emer worked in the electronics industry as a mixed signal integrated
circuit designer for six years. She returned to education in 2007 to
conduct a master’s in sustainable energy in University College Cork
(MEngSc, 2008). Emer is currently Energy Trends Analyst with the
Energy Policy Statistical Support Unit of Sustainable Energy
Ireland. A native of Cork, Emer’s other interests include cooking,
pilates, jogging, golf and badminton and also has a particular ‘grá’
for Ó’Conaill’s chocolate!
Emer Walker
Emer is a native of Cork and completed her B.Sc. in Environmental
Science in UCC in 2009. During the summer of 2009, Emer worked
at the University of Copenhagen on management control methods for
the invasive species Rosa rugosa and allopathic chemicals in
Heracleum mantegazzianum. Emer has started a M.Sc. in Applied
Ecology investigating the phenology of alien and native plants in the
Glengarriff Wood Nature Reserve and Uragh Wood near Kenmare,
their contributions to food availability and the resulting impacts on
Irish wildlife. Her supervisors are of Dr. Pádraig Whelan and Dr.
Mark Emmerson. Emer has a keen interest in hill walking and
mountaineering
Fionn Rogan
Fionn is originally from Sixmilebridge in Co. Clare. He graduated
from NUI Galway in 2002 with a degree in Industrial Engineering &
Information Systems. He then worked for Intel for a number of
years as a test wafer engineer. After a year abroad, teaching English
as a foreign language in the Czech Republic, he moved to University
College Cork to complete a Master’s Degree in Sustainable Energy.
A few months after finishing this, he joined the Sustainable Energy
Research Group in the ERI to begin a PhD entitled “Empirical
Analysis to Improve Modeling of Future Total Final Consumption
Gas Demand”. In his free time, he enjoys swimming, unicycling, listening to music and
playing the guitar, reading and aikido.
16/02/2016
James Hale
James Hale came to work for Mark Achtman’s group last June
after completing his Ph.D, Helicobacter pylori: virulence and
evolution, at the University of Nottingham. He obtained his
undergraduate degree in genetics from Aberystwyth University.
James is currently working on the phylogeny of Salmonella
enterica. In his spare time he enjoys nothing more than long walks
in the rain, collecting scarves and looking wistfully into the
middle distance. Most evenings James can be found staying in by
the fire with a good book, a glass of red wine and his cat, mittsey before retiring for a long bath
and gin and tonic. James also enjoys the movies of Robert Redford, the music of Michael
Bublé and post modern and impressionist art 
Mark Coughlan
Mark is from Kinsale, Co.Cork , au bord de la mer, which he
adores. He graduated in 2009 from U.C.C with a first class
honours degree in Geology where he met some really
inspirational characters who have ignited his love for geology
over the last four years, in particular marine geology and
igneous petrology. At the moment he is just starting a PhD in
marine geology here in the ERI under the supervision of Andy
Wheeler and Boris Dorschel as part of the Geology Department
in U.C.C. As part of his work he will spend some time at sea
doing research which he will always relish. Mark enjoys the outdoors especially hiking,
swimming in the sea, surfing, soccer and golfing but in truth hurling and gaelic football are his
joy de vive. He also loves to travel (although he says himself has been relatively nowhere
compared to some people he knows!) with his favourite destination being Italy mainly for it's
culture, cuisine and beautiful cities. Like most people he appreciates a good book, preferably
something by Joyce, Hemingway, Orwell, Kavanagh, O'Ceallaigh, Solzhenitsyn or
Doestoevsky but in the end I'd probably read anything!
Paul Smith
Paul joins us from the University of Leeds, School of Earth and
Environment, where he completed his undergraduate degree in
Meteorology and Atmospheric Science, and a PhD building a
fast-response ozone sensor based on chemiluminescence. Leeds
is his home town as well. He joins Dean Venables group, as a
post-doc working on fast and sensitive detection of atmospheric
elemental mercury, using laser diodes and optical cavities.
Current techniques though sensitive, are too slow, precluding
measurements via eddy covariance - useful for determining
mercury fluxes to surfaces and therefore improving our knowledge of mercury budgets. Paul is
a keen cyclist, and enjoys building and repairing bicycles - in another life he would be 'Bicycle
Repair Man. He also likes hiking, shopping for clobber, and anime.
16/02/2016