Academic

2018 - present                  Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University

Interdisciplinary Assistant Professor within the Innovation Studies Department.

2017 - 2018                      Centre for Complex Systems Studies, Utrecht University

Coordinator of the Complexity Lab Utrecht (CLUe). 

2017 - 2018                      University College Utrecht, Utrecht  University

Lecturer and Tutor: I lectured in courses on Sustainability and Environmental Science. I also had the role of academic tutor and assisted students in mapping their academic path.

2015 – 2017                      Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University

Postdoc: Complex drivers of unsustainable water resource use

My Post-doctoral research focused on unravelling the complex processes within the global food production and trade system that lead to unsustainable water use. I developed human-environment models in an historical and contemporary setting to answer these questions. The goal of this research was to illuminate pathways towards a sustainable future for humans, ecosystems and the water they share. 

2009 – 2014                   Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University

PhD: Holocene climate change and its impact in the Roman Mediterranean

My thesis focused on developing a mechanistic understanding of climate change during the Holocene and the impact that these changes had on past societies. I used a suite of statistical methods to reconstruct past changes using several climate records. These reconstructions formed the basis for a model of Roman food and water management, designed and built in collaboration with quantitative historians, hydrologists and demographers.  

2008 – 2009                   Dept. of Environmental Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

MSc: Environmental Sciences (Grade: Distinction)

Dissertation:     The evolutionary pathway to obligate foraging in Gyps vultures

2001 – 2005               Dept. of Built Environment, Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland

BSc: Geomatics (Grade: 1st)

Dissertation:     An Investigation into the Performance of Predictive GIS Archaeological Models in an Irish Context

Other Experience

2007-2008                  Zhejiang University of Technology and Jiangshan Middle School, Zhejiang Province, China

English Teacher

Teaching oral and written English at high school and university level

2005-2007                UPC Communications, Ireland

Geospatial analyst

Drafting maps and schematics using GIS and AutoCAD software