Presenters:
Dr Grace Cott an Assistant Professor in Plant Biology at University College Dublin, leader of the Blue Carbon research lab, and a Marie Curie alumna. Dr Cott's research is focused on quantifying carbon stocks and sequestration rates and greenhouse gas emissions from saltmarsh habitats and coastal reed swamps, and assessing plant and habitat responses to climate change. In 2014, Dr Cott undertook her Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Maryland USA working at the Global Change Research Wetland. In 2020, Dr Cott secured a Science Foundation Ireland Starting Investigator Grant to launch blue carbon research in Ireland. In total, she has secured €2.9 million in research funds to date. Dr Cott is a member of the Coastal Carbon Research Coordination Network and is lead-PI on a Marine Institute funded project focused on investigating Ireland's blue carbon potential across saltmarsh, seagrass and near-shore habitats.
Eimear Manning holds a masters of science in environmental sustainability, where she focused on marine and freshwater environments. Based on her continued outreach of marine education and ocean literacy she was appointed as Ireland's All-Atlantic Ocean Youth Ambassador from 2019-2020, and now continues as an All-Atlantic Ocean Youth Mentor. Throughout her interactions with a diverse range of communities during her ambassadorship, Eimear found an appreciation of the need for Climate Justice, particularly for communities that will be most negatively impacted by the effects of climate change. Eimear shifted her career focus from specifically marine and coastal communities to all marginalised communities that deserve a Just Transition.
Eimear now works as the Climate Justice & Youth Development Officer at the National Youth Council of Ireland. Alongside her climate justice initiatives she promotes the importance of youth inclusion and a youth-led approach, particularly in relation to policy that directly impacts current and future generations of young people. Eimear continues her environmental education workshops and seminars through her own company, TurnTides.org.
Dr Gerard McCarthy is an oceanographer working in the Irish Climate Research and Analysis Unit (ICARUS) in the Department of Geography at Maynooth University, where he leads a team of seven oceanographers and climate scientists.
His research interests are in poysical Oceanography, specialising in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), with particular interest in evolution of the AMOC in the 20th century. Since starting work in Maynooth in late 2017, he has worked on piecing together Ireland's sea level change since the mid-19th century.
He leads the A4 project funded by the Marine Institute and is co-Investigator on EirOOS—an Irish ocean observing system. He currently leads a workpackage on the JPI Oceans and Climate project ROADMAP. He has been involved in a number of European Commission funded projects including the Thor, NACLIM, and Blue-Action.
Gerard previously worked at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, UK, where he worked with the RAPID team measuring the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation.
Professor David G. Reid is the Principle Investigator on Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management at the Marine Institute. He has worked for 32 years in fisheries management on Fisheries sustainability, fishing capacity and effort, industry collaboration, as well as Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (IEA) and Ecological Risk Analysis (ERA). Dave started his career in fisheries at the Marine Lab Aberdeen (now Marine Scotland Science), and came to Ireland in 2009 to lead the Beaufort Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management project at the MI. He has a strong involvement with ICES, including chairing the Science Steering Group on IEA and many ICES expert groups. He has been involved in over 20 EU funded projects, in two cases as scientific coordinator. He has co-authored over 120 peer reviewed publications. He is Adjunct Professor at University College Cork, Ireland.
Moderator:
Dr. Glenn Nolan is currently head of oceanographic and climate services at the Marine Institute in Galway. Previously Director of the European component of the Global Ocean Observing System (EuroGOOS) in Brussels. He has broad experience in national and European funded programmes (Interreg, Framework 7 and Horizon 2020) and in developing Ireland's ocean observing and forecasting capability and funding for marine research and development over 25 years.
