Professor Yvonne Buckley honoured with Royal Irish Academy Gold Medal

Posted on: 12 February 2026

Yvonne takes an interdisciplinary approach to tackling climate and biodiversity challenges, with her work both contributing to the accrual of knowledge via explorative, fundamental science, as well as delivering practical applications to real-world, here-and-now issues. She also contributes to public policy, civic society and environmental management.

Joining Trinity in 2014 as the Chair of Zoology in the School of Natural Sciences, Yvonne has since secured more than €50 million in research funding as lead investigator. She is Co-Director of the recently established Co-Centre for Climate + Biodiversity + Water, where she leads a team of over 100 researchers across 14 institutions on the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. And she is also Director of the AIB Trinity Climate Hub, which accelerates and supports research and engagement for meaningful impact on climate, nature and society.

Prof. Buckley said: "I am deeply honoured to have received this award from the Royal Irish Academy. I am driven by a deep curiosity about how plant and animal populations function in a human dominated world. Research at the intersection of people, nature and climate touches on all sectors of the economy, wellbeing and society and it is a privilege to have worked with so many brilliant collaborators from different disciplines to better understand and provide solutions for some of the world’s most urgent challenges.”

Over the course of her career, Yvonne has developed an internationally influential body of work on the environmental, climate and human-driven foundations of the population performance of plants and animals. Her work has expanded understanding of the mechanisms underlying rarity and over-abundance of species as well as the broad range of evolutionary strategies through which plant and animal species persist and respond to global change.

She has published over 150 peer-reviewed articles with more than 18,000 citations, and has mentored over 40 PhD students and post-doctoral researchers, many of whom now hold influential positions in academia, non-profit organisations, industry and the public sector.

Yvonne has made – and continues to make – substantial contributions to public policy. For example, she was Chair of the National Biodiversity Forum and is a member of the Climate Change Advisory Council, providing advice to government on policy responses to the biodiversity and climate crises. She was also the founding Co-Chair of the All Island Climate and Biodiversity Research Network (2020 – 2024).

Recognising the importance of wider public engagement with science, she also communicates her work and the importance of integrated action on climate and biodiversity challenges through her widely read monthly science column in The Irish Times, and via her many other regular contributions to radio and television.

Imelda Maher, Senior Vice President of the Royal Irish Academy, with RIA Gold Medal winner, Prof. Yvonne Buckley, Provost of Trinity, Dr Linda Doyle, and Minister James Lawless, Department of Further and Higher Education, Research Innovation and Science.

Provost Linda Doyle said: “I want to extend warmest congratulations to Yvonne on this fantastic recognition of her exceptional contributions to ecology and, indeed, the public good.  Her work exemplifies the very best of academic leadership - rigorous, interdisciplinary, and impactful. 

“Trinity’s Sustainability Strategy aims to tackle the twin challenges of biodiversity loss and climate change by researching new and creative approaches for transformational change at local, national and global level. Yvonne is an inspiring leader of this collective endeavour here in Trinity.”

• Tags:
• Awards and Funding
• Environment
• Research
• Science
• Sustainability