Group Members
We are always looking for new PhD students, Postdocs, and Master students to join the team (see openings) !
People
Dr. Aaron Golden
Lab PI.; Assoc. Prof. 2022- (Physics/Natural Sciences, University of Galway); Vice-Dean for Research & Innovation, College of Science & Engineering, University of Galway (2023-)
email: aaron.golden@universityofgalway.ie
Dr. Michael Geever
SFI Postdoc, started January 2023
Michael is working on the application of AI & statistical analytics to earth observation data.
email: michael.geever@universityofgalway.ie
Dr. Patricia Codyre
Research Associate, started September 2022
Dr. Codyre is the TAPAS Programme Manager, focused on leveraging advanced digital technologies to address complex societal challenges. Her work explores novel AI approaches in current research on climate change, public health, and data analytics to support informed policy development.
email: patricia.codyre@universityofgalway.ie
Dr. Brian O’Sullivan
DAFM Postdoc, started 2024
Brian is working on the predictive modeling of AMR outbreaks across Ireland using archived GIS and earth observation data. This project - PRISMA (Predictive RISk Mapping of AMR in Ireland) - is being lead by Dr. Alex de Menezes in the School of Biological & Chemical Sciences.
email: brian.b.osullivan@universityofgalway.ie
Parisa Taheri Foroushani
PhD Student, started Oct 2019
Parisa is studying the radiomics/radiogenomics of lung cancer.
email: P.TaheriForoushani1@universityofgalway.ie
Deirdre Ní Chonchubhair
PhD Student, started Oct 2020
Deirdre is studying stellar magnetospheres using radio and optical observational data.
email: d.nichonchubhair1@universityofgalway.ie
Sai Chaitanya Susarla
PhD Student, started Oct 2021
Sai is using radio pulsars to remotely sense the interstellar and interplanetary medium.
email: s.susarla1@universityofgalway.ie
Mick Ryan
PhD Student, started September 2021
Mick is exploring the use of high cadence optical imaging to the study of planetary bodies in our solar system.
email: m.ryan109@universityofgalway.ie
Dr. Brian Woods
ICAT Fellow, started July 2023
Dr. Woods is working with novel imaging, applied statistical & ML methods to the diagnosis and staging of nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathies.
email: woodsbr@tcd.ie
Jemima O’Farrell
Research Assistant on the TAPAS project, started February 2023
Jemima is an expert in the development and deployment of data science solutions to a range of environmental and climate science problems using earth observation data.
email: jemima.ofarrell@universityofgalway.ie
Dr. Lisa Kiely
ICAT Fellow, started July 2024
Dr Kiely is working on combining hyperspectral/3D imaging and clinical biomarkers to diagnose, stage and determine the prognosis of localized scleroderma, otherwise known as Morphea.
email: lkiely@gmail.com
Bachelor Students & Interns
Conor Sheridan
School of Natural Sciences (Physics) Summer Intern 2024
Conor worked with Sai Chaitanya Susarla on the identification of bright pulses of radio emission from nearby pulsars using the I-LOFAR radio telescope.
Eoin Disney
School of Natural Sciences (Physics) Summer Intern 2023
Eoin analysed SuperDARN observations of recent coronal mass ejection impacts and their associated aurora.
Eva Langan
HRB Summer Scholarship Programme, Summer 2023
Eva worked with Dr. Sian McGarel (University Hospital Galway) on the genomics of adrenocortical carcinoma.
Elif Adıgüzel
Erasmus+ Internship Programme 2022.
Elif worked on data taken with the I-LOFAR radiotelescope to detect Uranian electrostatic discharges.
Jemima O’Farrell
Final Year Project (School of Physics), 2021-2022.
Jemima worked on methods to analyse data from the Hale Telescope’s CHIMERA high-speed imaging camera.
David O’Callaghan
School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Internship Programme, Summer 2021.
David used the I-LOFAR telescope to study the radio emissio from a nearby pulsar.
Alumni
Dr. Pearse Murphy
2024-2024
Role: Pearse worked as a SFI Postdoc on the TAPAS Project on methods to determine subterranean soil moisture remotely using earth observation based synthetic aperture radar
Dr. Murphy is now a Quantative Finance Analyst for Bank of America.
Contact Pearse here
Dr. Dúalta Ó Fionnagáin
Role: Dúalta worked as a SFI Postdoc on the development of novel AI models to track and characterise the effects of climate change on biomass cycles
Dr. Ó Fionnagáin now works as a Data Engineer for Tetrascience.
Contact Dúalta here
Dr. Sumaira Malik
2020-2024
Role: Sumaira completed her PhD on the immunotherapeutic potential of long non-coding RNA expression in solid cancers in 2024
Dr. Malik is currently a Post-Doctoral Researcher at Walton Institute, South East Technological University, contributing to the PRIME project.
Contact Sumaira here
Ross Trearty
2023
Role: Ross worked as a Research Assistant on the TAPAS project
Ross lead the development of statistical models applied to crop yield production.
Contact Ross here
Yared Tessema
2022-2023
Role: Yared worked as a Research Assistant on the TAPAS project
He did a terrific job on studying the impact of climate change on agronomy practises.
Contact Yared here
Katie Pighini
2021-2022
Role: Katie completed a MSc (Res) on the transient optical emission from nearby brown dwarfs
Katie currently works as a data scientist for Plasmabound in Dublin.
Contact Katie here
Robert Ferguson
2021-2022
Role: Robert completed a MSc (Res) on a study of the radio pulsar PSR B0656+14 using the I-LOFAR radiotelescope
Robert currently works as an optical engineer for mBryonics in Galway.
Contact Robert here
Eamon McAndrew
2020-2021
Role: Eamon worked as a Research Assistant funded by the HRB on the application of generative adversarial networks (GANs) in COVID radiology.
Contact Eamon here
Ben Nolan
2020-2021
Role: Ben completed a MSc thesis on the radiogenomic properties of luminal breast cancers.
Contact Ben here
Clare Lamont
2020-2021
Role: Clare completed a MSc thesis on a topological data analysis of the colorectal microbiome.
Contact Clare here
Gavin Farrell
2020-2021
Role: Gavin completed a MSc on the biosynthetic gene cluster diversity in the colorectal microbiome.
Contact Gavin here
Luke Heneghan
2020-2021
Role: Luke completed a MSc on the diversity of Connemara kelp biofilm microbiomes.
Contact Luke here
Dr. Salam Dulaimi
2017-2021
Role: Completed a PhD on the optical properties of late-M and early-L dwarf stars. Dr. Dulaimi is an Assistant Professor at Al-Nahrain University in Baghdad, Iraq.
Contact Sal here
Donal O’Shea
2019-2020
Role: Donal completed a MSc on the functional association of genome duplications & and autism spectrum disorders.
Contact Donal here
Aran Casserly
2019-2020
Role: Aran completed a MSc on the development of a pipeline to process microbial microbiome data
Contact Aran here
Ella Lillis Greally
2018-2019
Role: Ella completed a MSc on profiling endogenous retroviral activity in prostate cancers.
Contact Ella here
Lydia King
2018-2019
Role: Lydia completed a MSc on karyotype instability within chromosome 11 in breast cancers.
Contact Lydia here
Ritasree Sengupta
2018-2019
Role: Ritasree completed a MSc on assessing dysbiosis in the colorectal microbiome.
Contact Rita here
Brian O’Sullivan
2018-2019
Role: Brian completed a MSc on radiosensitive gene expression profiles in prostate cancer.
Contact Brian here
Tom Huxford
2017-2018
Role: Tom completed a MSc on modeling aptamer-conjugated Au nanoparticle radiosensitization.
Tom has vanished!
Dalal AlSultan
2017-2018
Role: Dalal completed a MSc on screening for chemotherapeutic genes in marine fungal genomes.
Contact Dalal here
Olateju Idowu
2017-2018
Role: Olateju completed a MSc on studying the retroviral transcriptome in prostate cancers.
Contact Olateju here
Barry Digby
2017-2018
Role: Barry completed a MSc on a metabolite cluster analysis of thermophilic fungal genomes.
Contact Barry here
Jack Mc Mahon
2016-2017
Role: Jack completed a MSc on characterising the prostate cancer microbiome.
Contact Jack here
Laura Fahey
2016-2017
Role: Laura completed a MSc on extending codon usage bias to study putative pathogen genes using neural networks.
Contact Laura here
Dr. Kevin Shieh
2012-2016
Role: Completed a PhD on computational studies of de novo motif discovery in aptamer selections. Dr. Shieh is a Fellow at UC Irvine School of Medicine.
Contact Kevin here
Dr. David Rhee
2012-2015
Role: Postdoctoral Fellow. Supported a systems biology research effort for the pathogen Toxoplasma gondii by architecting and developing a data warehouse, toxoMine, based on the InterMine platform. Dr. Rhee is a Data Engineer for Meta.
Contact David here
Dr. Pilib Ó Broin
2008-2014
Role: Completed a PhD on a genome-scale study of genetic & epigenetic regulatory mechanisms in neurodevelopmental disorders. Dr. Ó Broin is an Assistant Professor in Bioinformatics at the University of Galway.
Contact Pilib here
Dr. Leon Harding
2008-2012
Role: Completed a PhD on the kinematic properties of several nearby field brown dwarfs and tight binary systems using the GUFI high speed photometer at the Mount Graham International Observatory. Dr. Harding is currently a Senior Staff Mission Architect at Northrop Grumman Space Systems based in Los Angeles, USA.
Contact Leon here
Dr. Stephen Bourke
2007-2012
Role: Completed a PhD on novel high throughput algorithms applied to interferometric imaging using networks of radio telescopes. Dr. Bourke is a Senior Staff Data Engineer at Overstock based in Sligo, Ireland.
Contact Stephen here
Dr. Alan Fergus
2004-2010
Role: Completed a PhD on boundary layer tracer suspension & dynamics by computationally modeling particulates in indoor environments. Dr. Fergus is a Master Engineer for Cloud RAN based in Longford, Ireland.
Contact Alan here
Dr. Gregg Hallinan
2004-2009
Role: Completed a PhD on magnetospheric processes and auroral emission from brown dwarfs and very low mass stars. Dr. Hallinan is Professor of Astronomy and Director of the Owens Valley Radio Observatory at Caltech.
Contact Gregg here
Dr. Andrew McLellan
2006-2008
Role: Completed a MSc on predicting imprinted genes in the mouse genome using neural networks. Dr. McLellan is an Associate Director & Solution Partner for Regeneron in Connecticut, USA.
Contact Andy here
Paul Geeleher
2006-2008
Role: Completed a MSc on the design & implementation of a web-based microarray analysis platform.
Contact Paul here
Dr. Caoilfhionn Uí Thuairisg
2004-2008
Role: Completed a PhD on a survey of magnetic spot activity on radio transient brown dwarfs. Dr. Uí Thuairisg is a Designer for Lusna Design.
Contact Caoilfhionn here
Dr. James Mc Donald
2003-2007
Role: Completed a PhD on novel computational implementation of the Discrete Dipole Approximation for high performance modeling of light scattering off particulates. Dr. Mc Donald is has the role of Autonomous Driving Principal Architect for Valeo in Galway, Ireland.
Contact James here
Dr. Shaun Mahony
2002-2005
Role: Completed a PhD on the development and application of self organising neural networks for biological sequence analysis. Dr. Mahony is an Associate Professor in Computational Biology at Penn State University in the United States.
Contact Shaun here
Dr. Padraig O’Connor
1999-2003
Role: Completed a PhD on the emission characteristics of pulsar magnetospheres by inverse-modelling methods.
Contact Padraig here