Professor N.F. Gray

email: nfgray@tcd.ie
Phone: +353-1-8961639

Professor Nick Gray has been working in the field of environmental science for over 30 years and is a specialist in wastewater treatment especially the area of biological treatment process design and operation. He leads the Water Technology Research Group and is author of a number of books on water and wastewater technology and practice. Apart from hydrobiology he is also interested in post climate change society and in particular greenhouse gas emission assessment and management.

Dr Carlos Rocha

Dr Carlos Rocha is the School of Natural Sciences lecturer in Environmental Change. After graduating in Technological Chemistry with honours in 1991, he went on to obtain a PhD in Marine Chemistry “suma cum laude” at the University of Lisbon in 1997. His contribution to the field was recognized at an early stage by two national science awards (1999 & 2000) and a prestigious nomination for the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography Lindemann Award in 2001. Before joining Trinity College, he was a lecturer in Biogeochemistry and the deputy director of the Centre for Marine and Environmental research at the University of Algarve, Portugal. Currently, Carlos directs the taught Masters in Environmental Sciences at Trinity, and teaches Environmental Transformations in the Developing world in the TCD Masters in Environment and Development, apart from various aspects of Earth System Science at both under- and postgraduate level. His current research focuses on the study of sandy sediment beds as active, natural biogeochemical reactors intercepting carbon and nitrogen flow from continents to the ocean. His main research goal is to understand their functional plasticity in response to anthropogenic pressure, climate change and biological activity. His research group is involved in research in Ireland and abroad, including Portugal and the Netherlands, and has links across Europe, South America and Asia. His research is funded by the EU, the Portuguese Government, the Irish EPA and Trinity College Dublin. Carlos is linked to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as an expert in marine nutrient chemistry, and is developing capacity building courses across several African countries under the auspices of this UN body. He is also the Irish representative in COST Action ES0801 (The ocean chemistry of bioactive trace elements and paleoclimate proxies), is an associate editor for the Journal of Sea Research, and has been regularly published in the scientific literature.

Dr Catherine Coxon

email: cecoxon@tcd.ie

Catherine Coxon is a Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science.  She carries out research within the broad area of environmental earth science, mainly on groundwater quality.  Her specific interests include:rural groundwater quality problems, particularly nitrate; groundwater vulnerability assessment and protection schemes; karst hydrogeology and karst groundwater protection; phosphorus loss to surface waters by different hydrological pathways; groundwater – surface water interactions and integrated catchment management.  She participates in interdisciplinary water research projects in collaboration with other researchers in the T.C.D. School of Natural Sciences and School of Engineering, and also with bodies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, Teagasc (the Irish agricultural research and advisory body) and the Geological Survey of Ireland. Current projects in which she is involved include Nitrogen attenuation along delivery pathways in agricultural catchments; Evaluation and interpretation of groundwater monitoring data and the implications for groundwater in Ireland. Recently completed projects include Pesticide leaching to groundwater in Ireland; Environmental supporting conditions for groundwater dependent terrestrial ecosystems; Evaluation of measures to reduce nitrate loss to groundwater from tillage land; Hydrochemistry and algal communities of turloughs (karstic seasonal lakes).

Dr Norman Allott

email: nallott@tcd.ie

Dr Norman Allott is a lecturer in Zoology and current Director of the Centre. He is a limnologist with over 30 years experience of pure and applied research on lakes and rivers and their relationship to catchments. Particular interests include acid waters, ecological assessment of lake quality and phytoplankton. His current research is focused on the ecology of turloughs (temporary lakes) especially on aspects relating to water chemistry and phytoplankton.

Mr Mark Kavanagh

email: kavanamg@tcd.ie

Mark holds a BSc (Hons) degree in chemistry from UCD.  He provides
assistance, advice and training to undergraduate, postgraduate students
(taught MSc and PhD) and staff with regard to the analytical equipment in
the Centre's laboratories. Other duties include setting up laboratory
practicals and assisting running of the same.

Dr Bridget O’Neill

email: oneillb6@tcd.ie

Dr O'Neill is a Research Fellow in Dr Alison Donnelly’s research group working on the climate change impacts on phenology project.  I received my PhD in entomology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 2008.  Currently I am working on changes in moth phenology in Ireland with climate change, using climate projections to forecast phenological changes, and which statistical techniques are most appropriate for phenological research. 

Dr. Ainhoa González Del Campo

Ainhoa began her third level education in Spain, and has since attained four post-graduate qualifications in Ireland including a Masters in Environmental Resource Management (University College Dublin) and a PhD in Environmental Planning (Dublin Institute of Technology). Her professional experience and her PhD research (Incorporating Spatial Data and GIS to Improve SEA of Land Use Plans: Opportunities and Limitations – Case Studies in the Republic of Ireland) have allowed her to gain significant expertise on the application of GIS for impact assessment of projects, plans and programmes. She has lectured internationally and participated in several international conferences.Her current project 'Sustainable Urban Planning Decision Support Accounting for Urban Metabolism' is funded by the European Seventh Framework Programme. The project entails assessing driving forces and pressures on environmental and socio-economic systems in urban settings. This will be achieved through case studies and participative workshops. Based on the findings, urban sustainability objectives, targets and indicators will be developed, and the associated monitoring programmes will be formulated. These will need to be approved and agreed by the end users. Subsequently, environmental and socio-economic impacts will be identified in a number of planning scenarios for each case study. Finally, the assessment methods will be incorporated into a Decision Support System and accordingly tested.

Dr. Jean Wilson (Research Fellow)

email: jewilson@tcd.ie

Jean Wilson is a Research Fellow funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the STRIVE Water Research Programme 2012 (2012-W-MS-13). Jean’s research project “CONNECT” (COmbiNed Earth ObservatioN and GEochemiCal Tracing for Groundwater Detection and Evaluation in Ireland) is being undertaken within the Biogeochemistry Research Group headed by Professor Carlos Rocha. Professor Catherine Coxon completes the research team and more details on the CONNECT project are available here. Jean’s research interests lie in environmental applications of remote sensing, GIS and spatial analysis. She graduated from Trinity College Dublin (July 2008) with a PhD in Geography specializing in digital change detection techniques for landscape monitoring in data-poor areas using New Providence Island, The Bahamas as a case-study. Prior to that Jean completed her undergraduate studies in Geography and Mathematics and postgraduate studies in Geographical Analysis (MA in Environmental Resource Management) and Remote Sensing and GIS (Postgraduate Diploma) at NUI Maynooth. More recently, Jean completed an EPA-STRIVE funded Research Fellowship (2009-2012) supervised by Professor Carlos Rocha on developing remote sensing as a tool for detection, quantification and evaluation of submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) to Irish coastal waters. Through her research she has gained considerable experience in the use of remote sensing and geochemical tracing techniques for groundwater detection and evaluation both at home and internationally.

Katie Tedd  (Research Fellow)

email teddk@tcd.ie

Katie Tedd is a research fellow funded by the Environmental Protection Agency STRIVE Programme (2008-2011).  Her research project is on “Evaluation and interpretation of groundwater monitoring data and the implications for groundwater in Ireland”.  This project involves the analysis of groundwater data collected by the Environmental Protection Agency for the EU Water Framework Directive, with the aim of providing a better understanding of Irish groundwater quality and groundwater levels.  The work on groundwater quality includes focused investigations into particular topics including (i) phosphorus in groundwater, particularly in the karst regions of the Western River Basin District, and the implications for surface water eutrophication, (ii) nitrate in groundwater in the South Eastern River Basin District: investigation of sources and pathways and quantification of load to rivers and estuaries, (iii) flow and quality relationships in karst springs.

Dr Stephen Waldren

email: swaldren@tcd.ie

Steve is a Lecturer in the Botany Department and Curator/Administrator of Trinity College Botanic Garden.  His research interests centre around plant diversity and its conservation.  His research group is currently investigation conservation biology of threatened native plants, evolution and conservation of island plants, the ecological functioning and conservation of turloughs , conservation planning, and sustainable use of natural resources in Nepal.  Steve is currently Course Director of the taught MSc programme in Biodiversity and Conservation.