What is your research about?
I work on extreme climate and the impact it has on people. I study what is happening in the tropics, where oceans are warming, and also in the Arctic, where ice is being lost rapidly. We need to understand more about how these global processes are linked, because they affect us all. I think after this summer of heatwaves in Ireland, people are more tuned into the fact that climate change is having an effect on our lives.
What first drew you to climate change as a field of research?
When I was 19, I did volunteer teaching overseas, and on that trip I spent time with the Maasai in Tanzania. Even back then, drought meant they could not grow enough food, and they spoke about how they used to know when the rains would come and they could plant crops, and now the rains were not coming. That really shifted things for me, and I wanted to research how climate change happens and the effects that it has on people. After my degree in science I specialised with a master’s degree in meteorology and then went on to do a PhD on climate change.
How do you carry out your research?
A lot of it is on the computer. I study data recorded from the tropics and the poles and I develop models to look at teleconnections, to see how warmer and colder temperatures in different regions affect climate over time. So, for example, how a warm ocean event in the tropics like El Niño can affect other regions.
Do you get to visit these regions?
I went to the Arctic during my PhD, which was amazing. I also worked as a researcher in Canada near the Arctic Circle and in New Zealand looking at the impact of climate events on health infrastructure in the South Pacific Island Nations and territories. So I have seen a lot of the world through my research, but day to day I am mostly in Maynooth on the computer.
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How did you move into studying the Arctic?
By chance I saw a PhD on offer. It was at Cambridge and with the British Antarctic Survey, who support work at both poles. I was always fascinated by the Arctic and I knew things were changing rapidly there. As I studied more, a term I started to use a lot is that “what happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic”, and also what happens in the Arctic can be driven by things happening in other regions of the world. You might think sitting in Ireland that you’re isolated, getting one storm or heavy rainfall event, but there are a series of events that have gone before it.
What do you wish everyone understood about climate change?
That everything’s interconnected in climate change, and the world is a very small place.
And what do you do to switch off from research?
Anything sporty. I love hiking and I go to the gym quite a bit and I am learning to be a more confident swimmer. Music too. Growing up in Carrickmore in Tyrone, I sang a lot and played piano, and I had plans to be a music teacher before a last-minute swerve to studying science. I still love listening to music, and playing when I can. It’s a nice way to relax. And I am passionate about Irish dancing. I have danced since I was a kid and now I’m a qualified teacher.
