ICARUS has a thriving PhD student community with students engaged in a broad range of climate-related research topics. Current and former PhD students have published multiple peer-reviewed articles. For more details on their backgrounds and thesis projects please view the drop-down entries below.
ICARUS Climate Research Centre
ToggleSudipto Bhowmik
Biography
Sudipto completed his M.Sc. (2014) in Environment Management from the Forest Research Institute, India and B.Sc. in 2012 from the University of Calcutta, India. Following his M.Sc., Sudipto worked in a range of positions, including as Junior Data Manager at the Forest Research Institute, Editorial Assistant at Chhaya Prakashani and as subject matter expert (Biology) at Chegg-India.
He has completed several training courses on including – REDD+; SDG Indicators [2.4.1, 6.4.2, 15.1.1, 15.2.1]; Forest Biometry; Integrating Climate Risk Information into NAPs; National Socioeconomic Surveys in Forestry; Assessing Risk in Agriculture from international organizations including FAO, UNITAR, NPTEL. Sudipto joined Maynooth University and ICARUS in 2020 as a PhD student and is funded under the Teagasc Walsh Scholarship programme. His research focusses on understanding the dependence of soil nutrient availability on climate, vegetation, geomorphology, soil and landscape management practices. His research will lead to improve understanding on the interrelations between both natural and anthropogenic drivers of soil nutrient availability and lead to improved agricultural management strategies, improved nutrient management and soil conservation and improved water use efficiency and support reduced GHG emission through sustainable and climate-sensitive agriculture.
Research interests
- Soil Biogeochemistry
- Soil and Water Conservation
- Sustainable and Climate-Sensitive Agriculture
- Spatial Data Analysis
- Statistical Modelling
Thesis
Thesis Title: Soil fertility underpinning nutrient use efficiency for sustainability
Supervisors: Dr Rowan Fealy, Lilian O’Sullivan, Dr David Wall and Reamonn Fealy
Description of Project: The project intends to find the interrelation and develop models of soil nutrient availability (mainly nitrogen and phosphorus) in agricultural landscape with intrinsic physicochemical properties of soil, topographical conditions, climate, agricultural soil management practices and crops. At the same time, the study will be identifying key regulators of soil nutrient availability. The outcomes of the study will be integrated to spatial platform at various levels from national to field scale and will be used to develop modified nutrient management strategies that will be performance tested with existing nutrient management tools.
Funding
2020-2024: Teagasc PhD Walsh Fellowship
Publications
Papers
Bhowmik S. and Kotiyal P. B. 2016. Bacterial Diversity and soil physicochemical properties in Tons River Basin of Dehradun; eJournal of Applied Forest Ecology (eJAFE). 4(2) 21-28.
Kotiyal P. B. and Bhowmik S. 2017. Enumeration of Soil Bacteria in the Soil of the Tons River Bank from Different Elevation; Octa Journal of Environmental Research. 5(2).149-155
Chapters
Bhowmik S, (2020) Ecological and Economic Importance of Wetlands and Their Vulnerability-A Review; Zero Waste: Management Practices for Environmental Sustainability: Current State and Future Impacts of Climate Change on Biodiversity. IGI Global. 95-112
Poster
Bhowmik S. and Raina A. K., Physicochemical properties of soil and identification of rocks from bank of river Tons, Dehradun; Asia Pacific Workshop on Water and Forests-Beyond Traditional Forest Hydrology (September, 2013)
Contact Details
Mobile: 035-852314156
Email: [email protected]
Mohamed Suleiman Bile
Biography:
Mohamed holds a BSc in Environmental Science from the University of Hargeisa, Somaliland (2015), and a Technical Diploma in Meteorological Forecasting (WMO Class II) from the Institute of Meteorological Training and Research, Nairobi, Kenya (2017). He earned an MA in Environment, Development, and Peace (2020) from the University for Peace, where his thesis focused on urban resilience to climate change in Hargeisa City, Somaliland. In 2022, Mohamed completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Meteorology at the University of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, through a scholarship from IGAD’s Climate Prediction and Application Centre (ICPAC). That same year, he was awarded the prestigious Government of Ireland International Education Scholarship (GOI-IES) to pursue an MSc in Climate Change at Maynooth University, Ireland (2023), where his thesis focused on drought trends and drivers in Somalia.
With over a decade of professional experience, Mohamed has held roles such as Meteorological Observer, Forecaster, and Inspector for Somalia's Meteorological Services, and served as a hydrometeorological services consultant for the World Bank. After completing his MSc, Mohamed joined ICARUS as a Research Assistant on the HydroDARE project, funded by the EPA and Met Éireann. He is currently a PhD student at ICARUS, Maynooth University. His doctoral research, funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) through the newly established Co-Centre for Climate + Biodiversity + Water, focuses on the hydroclimatology of unprecedented extremes (floods and droughts) under climate change in Ireland.
Research Interest
- Hydroclimatic Extremes with Climate Change and Variability
- Hydroclimatic Modelling
- Climate Storylines
- Climate Resilience
- Machine Learning and Big Data
Thesis
Working Title: Hydroclimatology of Unprecedented Extremes (Floods and Droughts) under Climate Change in Ireland
Supervisor: Prof.Conor Murphy
Co-Supervisor: Prof. Peter Thorne
Funding
Science Foundation Ireland through the newly established Co-Centre for Climate + Biodiversity + Water
Publications
Bile, M. S., & Limbu, P. (2022). Spatiotemporal Variability of Drought and its Relationships to ENSO and IOD Indices in Somaliland. Tanzania Journal of Science, 48(4), 816-831. DOI: 10.4314/tjs.v48i4.9
Contact Details:
Room 2.2
Laraghbryan House, ICARUS
North Campus, Maynooth University
Email: [email protected]
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohamed-s-bile-2146ba74/
Sandra Cristina Deodoro
Biography:
Sandra graduated from the Federal University of Minas Gerais-UFMG (Brazil) in 2006 with a B.Sc. in Geography. After that, she held Postgraduate Diplomas in Water Resources Management (2010) and in Geoprocess (2013), both at the Federal University of Minas Gerais. Afterwards, Sandra completed a M.Sc. in Environmental Systems Analysis and Modelling in 2020, from UFMG. In her master's thesis, she focused on the prediction of soil surface texture (topsoil 0-15cm) in the Volta Grande do Rio Uruguai (Uruguay River Plateau), Brazil southern, by using Sentinel-2 imagery and multivariate statistics. Sandra tested the use of the Discriminant Analysis as a statistical method to classify soil texture patterns from spectral reflectance data and soil particle size analysis. Her master´s project was also carried out in collaboration with the Federal University of Chapecó (Santa Catarina State-Brazil).
Sandra was also a volunteer researcher in the projects named "Quaternary paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the upper Uruguay River Valley - west of Santa Catarina State (Brazil)" and "Landscape morphodynamics of the Southern Basaltic Plateau (Brazil)", both funded by Edital MCTI/CNPQ 01/2016-Brazil. These projects are part of a major archaeological research project that aimed to investigate the first settlements in the upper Uruguay River.
Sandra joined ICARUS at Department of Geography, Maynooth University in 2021 and her research project focusses on topsoil texture retrieval in Ireland from different Earth Observation platforms, by testing two types of radar microwave (SAR and GPR) and machine learning to predict soil particle size.
Research interest:
- Soil Science
- Remote Sensing of Environment
- Geostatistic and Spatial Analysis in SIG
- Geology
- Geomorphology
- Fluvial geomorphology
Thesis
Thesis Title: Retrieving topsoil texture from remote sensing and proximal sensing (GPR) for predicting soil properties in Ireland
Supervisor: Dr Rowan Fealy
Co-Supervisors: Dr Tim McCarthy and Reamonn Fealy (Teagasc)
Awards and Scholarships
2021-2025: John and Pat Hume Doctoral Scholarship Award
2019-2020: DS-CAPES Scholarship (Brazil)
Contact Details:
Email: [email protected]
Seán Edward Donegan
Biography
Seán graduated from Maynooth University in 2017 with a B.A. (Joint Honours) in History and Geography. He was awarded a €2,000 Taught Master’s Scholarship and subsequently went on to complete an M.Sc. in Climate Change in 2018. His Ph.D. research focuses on the development of Ensemble Streamflow Prediction (ESP) approaches to seasonal hydrological forecasting for Irish river catchments. ESP methods typically employ hydrological models to estimate initial conditions and use boundary forcings resampled from historical observations to produce an ensemble forecast of streamflow. Seán’s work will establish and benchmark ESP methods and will explore both when and where predictability of Irish river flows is possible for different initialisation and lead times, as well as the extent to which predictability is influenced by model complexity. It comprises part of the HydroCast project, which is funded by Science Foundation Ireland.
Research Interests
- Climate change.
- Hydrology/hydroclimatology.
- Rainfall-runoff modelling.
- Seasonal hydrological forecasting.
- Statistical analysis.
Thesis
Working Title: Ensemble Streamflow Prediction for Irish Catchments.
Supervisor: Dr. Conor Murphy.
Funding
2018–22: Science Foundation Ireland.
Awards
2018: Department of Geography Prize for the Best Overall Performance in the M.Sc. Climate Change (Joint Winner).
2017: Maynooth University Taught Master’s Scholarship.
2017: Department of Geography Prize for the Best Physical Geographer in the Third Year Examinations.
2016: Department of Geography Prize for the Best Overall Performance in the Second Year Examinations.
2015: Department of Geography Prize for the Best Overall Performance in the First Year Examinations.
Professional Experience
2017–19: Demonstrator for second year Geography modules GY201/GY202: Methods of Geographical Analysis.
2017: Tutor for first year Geography module GY151: Living Landscapes.
2017: Completed the Professional Certificate in Teaching and Learning (Maynooth University Centre for Teaching and Learning).
Memberships
British Hydrological Society (BHS).
European Geosciences Union (EGU).
Geographical Society of Ireland (GSI).
International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS).
Contact Details
Room 2.2
Laraghbryan House
North Campus
Maynooth University
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @SEDonegan
Csaba Horvath
Biography
I graduated from University College Dublin in 2017 where I studied Geography and Archaeology before I completed my MSc through research in geography in 2017-2019. My Master thesis explored the characteristics of Dublin’s climate based on crowd-sourced meteorological data.
After the completion of my MSc, I worked as a research assistant in the Irish Climate Analysis and Research UnitS on two international research projects from 2019 to 2022. During this time I contributed to the ‘Irish Droughts: Environmental and Cultural Memories of a Neglected Hazard’ project and I was also part of the Irish research team on the ‘Evaluating Health Impacts of Climate Adaptation Strategies’ project.
In 2022, I successfully applied for the Irish Research Council Environmental Protection Agency Postgraduate Scholarship and began my PhD under the supervision of Prof. Conor Murphy and Prof. Peter Thorne in September 2022.
Research Interests
My research interests are interdisciplinary and focus on hydro climatology, urban climates, adaptation to climate change, historical climatology and the social aspects of climate change.
Thesis
Working title: Storylines for a Climate Resilient Ireland
Supervisor: Prof. Conor Murphy
Co-supervisor: Prof. Peter Thorne
Funding /Sponsor: Irish Research Council
Qualifications:
BA – Geography and Archaeology, University College Dublin, 2017
MSc - Geography, University College Dublin, 2019
Publications:
Peer reviewed publications:
O'Connor, S., Murphy, C., Butler, J., Crampsie, A., Ludlow, F., Horvath, C. and Jobbová, E. (2020) A weather diary from Donegal, Ireland, 1846–1875. Weather, Early View. Available at: https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/wea.3818 [Accessed 8 October 2021]
Murphy, C., Wilby, R.L., Matthews, T., Horvath, C., Crampsie, A., Ludlow, F., Noone, S., Brannigan, J., Hannaford, J., McLeman, R. and Jobbova, E. (2020) The forgotten drought of 1765–1768: Reconstructing and re‐evaluating historical droughts in the British and Irish Isles. International Journal of Climatology, 40(12). pp. 5329-5351
Internet publication:
Jobbová E, Crampsie, A., Murphy C, Ludlow F, McLeman R, Horvath C. (2019) Drought: Ireland's Forgotten Hazard?, Historical Climatology, 20 December. Available at: https://www.historicalclimatology.com/projects/drought-irelandsforgotten-hazard [Accessed 8 October 2021]
Contact
Email: [email protected]
Shirley Howe
Biography
Shirley graduated from Maynooth University in 2018 with a BA Double Honours in Geography and Anthropology, selecting modules relevant to her research interests across both disciplines throughout. Shirley’s PhD research is in the area of Ireland’s populated off-shore islands. She brings an interdisciplinary perspective (geography, anthropology and island studies) to examine the questions of climate change resilience and vulnerability, socio-ecological dynamics, island identities, population geography, and the spatiality of justice.
Shirley holds a Professional Certificate in Postgraduate Teaching & Learning (2019), and graduated from Maynooth University in 2018 with a BA (First Class Honours) in Geography and Anthropology (Double Major), ranked in the top 1% of a class of 801 students. She is also a co-founder of the ‘The Circus of Climate Horrors’, a climate science outreach initiative supported by ICARUS and the Department of Geography.
Research Interests
- Physical and societal drivers of anthropogenic climate change
- Ireland’s islands
- Resilience and vulnerability
- Climate and spatial justice
Thesis
Title: Of land and ocean: Climate Change Resilience and Vulnerability on Inishbofin Island’ (Submitted June 2024)
Supervisors: Dr Conor Murphy, Geography Department, Maynooth University ( Primary),
Dr Chandana Mathur, Anthropology Department, Maynooth University (Secondary)
Awards
- 2024: Irish Geographical Society Travel Award.
- 2022: Matt Stephens Postgraduate Travel Award.
- 2022: HEA Covid Extension Fund.
- 2019: Eda Sagarra Medal of Excellence for being the top-ranking Postgraduate Scholar in the domain of arts, humanities and social sciences under the Irish Research Council’s Government of Ireland funding programmes.
- 2019: Global Undergraduate Awards - Regional Winner for the Island of Ireland.
- 2019: Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship, Irish Research Council/ Environmental Protection Agency (awarded 98/100).
- 2018: John and Pat Hume Doctoral Scholarship Award.
- 2016: Undergraduate Academic Award - Department of Geography Best Performance in First Year Examinations out of 390 students.
Teaching Experience
2024
- GY216 Hazards and Society, Geography. Physical dynamics of hazards and key social processes; theories of vulnerability and resilience; Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR); and drivers including climate change and mega-cities.
- GY261 Global Environmental Change 2, Geography. Earth system components and trends aligned with societal responses (e.g. the Anthropocene, degrowth, activism) to climate change and environmental challenges.
- GY205 Irish Fieldtrip, Geography. Physical and human geography fieldwork methods on Inishbofin Island.
2023
- GY216 Hazards and Society.
2022-23
- Writing Centre Tutor, Maynooth University, providing one-to-one research skills and writing supports in-person and online across all subjects and degree levels.
2022
- CM67 Climate Change, Adult Education (part-time BA). Physical processes of natural and anthropogenic climate change; climate modelling and research; societal responses.
2019
- GY162 Global Environments, Geography. Tutor.
2018
- GY151 Living Landscapes, Geography. Tutor.
2018-24
- Occasional guest lecturer for second and final year UG anthropology students in political ecologies, and for MSc in Climate Change: GY655 Impacts, Adaptation and Mitigation.
Contact Details
Email: [email protected]
Room 2.2 Laraghbryan House Maynooth University Maynooth Co Kildare
LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shirleyahowe/
Twitter/X: https://x.com/ShirleyAHowe
Guillaume Hug
Biography
Guillaume completed his BSc in theoretical physics at the University of Strasbourg (France) between 2016 and 2020. He obtained in 2022 the Master degree from the University Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (Lyon, France) in Ocean, Atmosphere and Climate Sciences, speciality Climate Sciences. He did his master internship at the Laboratory of Ocean Physics and Satellite Remote Sensing (Brest, France) under the supervision of Swen Jullien and Clément Vic on the life cycle of internal waves around New Caledonia based on the results of a CROCO simulation.
Guillaume is currently undertaking his PhD research at ICARUS with Dr Gerard McCarthy in the framework of a Science Foundation Ireland (SFI iCRAG) funded project on the mid-20th century Atlantic circulation using modern observations and models (MACMOMO project). The focus of his research is on the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and its variations over time. He studies the differences between past predictions of the global climate model and the reconstruction of the AMOC based on proxy data, with the insight of modern in situ observation.
Research Interest
- Oceanography
- Overturning circulation
- Climate Change
- Climate/Ocean modelling
- statistical modelling
Thesis
Mid-20th Century Atlantic Circulation informed by Modern Observations and Models
Supervisor: Dr Gerard McCarthy
Ashly Kalayil Uthaman
Biography
Ashly completed her Masters on Oceanography from Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kerala, India in 2018 and Bachelors in Physics from BCM College, M G University, Kerala, India in 2016. Her Master’s thesis focused on shoreline change analysis and the assessment was done by analysing the change in zero-meter contours for six profiles in the study area (Tamil Nadu coast, India (E)) and a hydrodynamic model using DELFT 3D was set up and validated, which can simulate shoreline change for a given wave condition for the area.
After her graduation she worked in a project funded by Space Application Centre, India ,(2019-2020 to develop an automated RIP current prediction system using numerical modelling. She was also a part of collaborated project with The University of Edinburgh (Australia), Indian Institute of Technology (India) and The Jadavpur University (India) to set up validated FLOW model (Delft 3D FLOW) for the Sundarbans estuary, West Bengal, India, that focused on better prediction of the tidal current velocities at potential sites, which meant that a more accurate prediction of the power production from tidal arrays could be made.
Ashly joined ICARUS, Department of Geography, Maynooth University in 2021 and her research focusses on investigating wave impacts on Irish coasts on the decadal and climatological scale with the aim of creating a model framework for Irish coast and develop a new coastal impact model for the Irish coastal zone.
Research interest
- Beach erosion and accretion.
- Coastal hydrodynamics.
- Coastal Management.
- Impact of extreme events on coast.
- Numerical Modelling.
- Sediment and littoral transport.
- Shoreline changes.
Thesis
Title: Decadal Wave Prediction of Irish Coast (DeWaPIC)
Supervisor
Name: Dr André Düsterhus
Co-Supervisor
Name: Dr. Tomasz Dabrowski
Institution: Marine Institute
Secondary MU Supervisor
Name: Dr. Gerard McCarthy
Funding
2021- 2025: CULLEN Scholarship, Marine Institute
Publications
Neeraj Prakash, Ashly K U, Jaya Kumar Seelam, Harsha Bhaskaran, Yadhunath E. M, Rajive Krishnan, Lavanya H, Arun Kumar Surisetty, “Measurement and modelling of waves and currents in shallow waters of North Go”, Journal of Earth System Science (Accepted for publication)
Conference Paper
Ashly K U, A S Kiran, Lokesh T, Sankar S, R Vijaya, R Sajeev, “Analysis of shoreline change behavior of coastal fishing villages of Kadalur, Tamil Nadu”, INCHOE 2018 – Conference Paper.
Conference presentations
“Analysis of shoreline change behaviour of coastal fishing villages of Kadalur, Tamil Nadu” in 6th Indian National Conference on Coastal Harbour and Ocean Engineering 2018.
“Estimation of Tidal Stream Energy – GPLOT, Sundarbans, West Bengal” on International Symposium on Advances in Coastal Research with special reference to Indo Pacific- 2019
Contact Details
Room 3.2
Laraghbryan House
North Campus
email: [email protected]
Yongyao Liang
Yongyao graduated from the University of Strathclyde with a BA in Finance and Business Analysis in 2023. During her undergraduate studies, she developed an interest in the practical role of climate bonds in addressing climate change. This curiosity led her to explore broader questions about the climate system’s responses to distinct drivers. She subsequently pursued a research-based Master’s degree in Climate and Atmospheric Science at the University of Leeds, UK. Her Master’s research centred on attributing the heat flux in 2023 to external and internal forces, utilising a simple climate model with a large ensemble to disentangle the contributions of internal variability and external influences.
Currently, Yongyao is a PD researcher at ICARUS, where she is investigating the impacts of internal and natural climate variability on climate projections for the British and Irish Isles, to enhance understanding of the uncertainties in regional climate and their implications for climate adaptation and policy-making. This project is supervised by Professor Peter Thorne (ICARUS) and funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) through the Co-center for Climate + Biodiversity and Water.
Research Interests
- Natural and Internal variability
- Large Ensemble climate model
- Climate storylines
- Climate resilience
Contact Details
Room 3.2
Laraghbryan House
North Campus
email: [email protected]
Brendan McGoldrick
Biography:
Brendan graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 2020 with a BS in General Science, specialising in Environmental Science. This general science pathway allowed him to be introduced to various methods within the vast discipline, covering modules in biology, chemistry, and geology. Gaining valuable insight and synergy of the different aspects of the multiple fields of science. Brendan's research focuses on sustainable development, incorporating problem-solving skills to current key issues, scientific communication, and evidence-based solutions. Brendan was awarded Teagasc Walsh PhD Scholarship for a joint research project between Teagasc and Maynooth University.
Research Interest:
- Climate change
- Agroecosystem
- Biogeochemical modelling
- Soil carbon sequestration
Thesis:
Project title: Soil carbon sequestration in a grassland production system.
Project Description: Investigating soil carbon sequestration in grassland production system. This research involves the use of biogeochemical models for simulating soil carbon sequestration over temperate grasslands. This is important as it will allow the agricultural sector to evaluate the impact of agricultural management on soil carbon stocks and sequestration rates.
Supervisor(s): Dr. Rowan Fealy (MU) and Dr Donal O’Brien (Teagasc).
Funding:
Teagasc Walsh Scholarship Programme
Patrick McLoughlin
Biography
Patrick completed his MSc in GIS and Remote Sensing at Maynooth University in 2020. He was awarded a Taught Masters Scholarship to study an MSc in GIS and Remote Sensing based on outstanding results in his primary degree. On completion of the MSc, he went to work as a GIS Technician and later an Imagery Technician in Icon Geo for two years before returning to Maynooth in 2022 when he was awarded research funding from Marine Institute for a four-year PhD. His research interests span disciplines such as climate change Geographical Information Systems, coastal vulnerability, historical sea level, and Earth Observation. The aim of this research is to correspond to the aims and objectives of The ReTRO (REcovering Tidal Record Observations) . The project contains the following four overarching objectives:
- Preserving historical sea level data in correspondence to the FAIR (Findable, Accessible,
Interoperable and Reusable) data management principles. - To advance a new methodology needed for the digitization of historical marigrams in Cork
and Galway, and all associated statistical/numerical data. - To analyse the available high frequency record of sea level in Cork and Galway for mean sea level, tidal and non-tidal characteristics and
- To contextualize the historical Irish mean sea level changes
Research interests
- Climate change
- Earth Observation and Remote sensing
- Coastal geology
- GIS Modelling
- Historical Sea level data
- Statistical Modelling
Thesis
Recovering legacy tidal records to elucidate trends in sea level rise in Ireland.
Supervisor: Dr. Gerard McCarthy (ICARUS), Dr Glenn Nolan (Marine institute). Other co-supervisors include: Kieran Hickey Co-Supervisor (University College Cork), David Pugh (National Oceanography Centre) and Rosemarie Lawler (Met Éireann)
Funding
2022: CULLEN Scholarship, Marine Institute- Four year fully funded research PhD, funded and supported by a consortium effort lead by Maynooth University with the Marine Institute, supported by partners Met Éireann, University College Cork, and the UK’s National Oceanography Centre., 48 months.
Awards
2022 Cullen Scholarship.Marine Institute.
Teaching and professional experience
2019: Maynooth University Taught Master’s Scholarship.
Publications
The accurate digitization of historical sea level records. Geoscience Data Journal. ISSN 2049-6060
https://doi.org/10.1002/gdj3.256
Membership
Irish Climate Analysis & Research Units (ICARUS)
Contact details
Room 3.2
Laraghbryan House
North Campus
Maynooth University
Maynooth
Co. Kildare
Phone: 089 233 7536
Email: [email protected]
Joshua Leslie Mimnagh
Biography:
Josh Graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Geography from the University of Liverpool in 2023, remaining at Liverpool to complete an MSc in Environmental Sciences in 2024. During his time at Liverpool, he took a keen interest in Paleoenvironmental research, with particular emphasis on paleoecology and the study of pollen and non-pollen palynomorphs (NPP) in sediment records and their application in paleoenvironmental reconstruction. For his undergrad thesis he undertook a study of NPP in a coastal lake on Anglesey, Wales with special interest in understanding environmental changes in the vicinity of the lake as a result of agricultural acceleration. During his undergraduate programme, he took part in a NERC funded research placement at the University of Liverpool focused on Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) of West Antarctic sediment. For his MSc thesis, he completed a hydrological study comparing in-situ river flows from coastal rivers in Almirante bay, Panama with model outputs from the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES) land surface model. His PhD project focuses on Ancient Woodland Paleoecology in Ireland as part of the overarching Ancient Woodlands Ireland (AWI) project, with a particular focus on pollen records and non-pollen palynomorphs in small woodland hollows.
Research interests:
- Paleoecology
- Palynology
- Paleoenvironmental change
- Woodlands
- Hydrology
Thesis
Joshua's PhD project focuses on Ancient Woodland Paleoecology in Ireland as part of the overarching Ancient Woodlands Ireland (AWI) project, with a particular focus on pollen records and non-pollen palynomorphs in small woodland hollows.
Supervisor: Dr Helen Shaw
Contact details:
[email protected]
ICARUS , Laraghbryan House
Room 2.2
Cathal Sean Ryan
Biography:
Cathal graduated with his Bachelor of Arts, Geography and Economics, in 2021 at the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG). Afterwards, he completed a MSc in Geology at Lund University, Sweden. During his master’s Cathal also studied at The University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) in Autumn of 2022. There, he investigated the glacially carved quaternary landscape of the Archipelago. In 2023, Cathal carried out an investigation of a late Quaternary loess-palaeosol sequence in northeastern Serbia for his thesis. The research aimed to examine palaeoclimatic shifts during the late Pleistocene and Holocene. The age was assessed using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) on quartz grains. To examine the past climatic signal, proxies such as magnetic susceptibility and mass accumulation rates (MAR) were utilized. Currently, Cathal has commenced his PhD at Maynooth University where he is investigating the past climate influence on the carbon accumulation rates of Irish blanket bogs.
Research interests:
- Palaeoclimatology
- Geochronology
- Peatlands
- Quaternary Geology
- Sedimentology
Thesis:
Investigating the past climate influence on the carbon accumulation rates of Irish blanket bogs.
Supervisor: Dr Lisa Orme (ICARUS)
Funding:
Science Foundation Ireland, fully funded (48 months)
Publications
https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=59179553700
Latest publication:
Revised OSL chronology of the Kisiljevo loess-palaeosol sequence:
New insight into the dust flux in the eastern Carpathian Basin during MIS 3 - MIS1
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2024.06.006
Data on the saturation behaviour of the 63-90 μm quartz from the Carpathian Basin'Data in Brief, 55. p. 110702. ISSN 23523409.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2024.110702
Contact details:
[email protected]
ICARUS , Laraghbryan House
Room 2.2
Rafaela Graça Scheiffer
Biography:
Rafaela earned her Bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences in 2015 from the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR) in Curitiba, Brazil. She then completed a MSc in Holistic Science at Schumacher College, Plymouth University, in Devon, England, where she investigated the divide between humans and the more-than-human world, as reflected in the context of climate change. In 2023, she completed a MSc in Urban Water Science at the University of Algarve in Faro, Portugal. During this program, she conducted a participatory study with local water managers to assess their acceptance of Nature-based Solutions (NbS), the adoption of alternative water sources, and other strategies aimed at enhancing water sensitivity in the Algarve - a region struggling with water scarcity and anticipated climate challenges such as rising temperatures and declining precipitation.
Rafaela had previously worked and as a researcher and consultant in innovative sustainability fields, including biomimicry, systems thinking, complexity theory, deep ecology and ecosystems regeneration. She also brings experience as a group facilitator and as a designer of transformative learning experiences. Her longstanding commitment to advancing a positive ecological transition has led her to participate in global events such as RIO+20 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; COP21 in Paris, France; and COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
Research interests:
- Climate Epistemologies
- Education for Sustainability
- Critical University Studies
- Embodied Complexity
- Holistic and Participatory Science
Thesis:
Linking Individual, Institutional and Societal Transformation: Higher Education as a Pathway towards Responding to Complexity in the 21st Century
Supervisor: Dr Jennie C. Stephens (ICARUS)
Funding:
Internally (MU) Funded Research Scholarship