Committee

Dr Arjumand Younus is an Assistant Professor (Computational Social Science) at UCD School of Sociology. Formerly, she was a Research Scientist in Afiniti AI, and a part-time lecturer in Technological University Dublin. Before this appointment, Arjumand has contributed to SFI funded projects during her different post-doctoral positions at CONSUS-UCD and INSIGHT-UCD. She is also serving in the capacity of co-director for Women in Research Ireland which is a volunteer-run registered charity working for better representation of women and under-represented groups in academia.

Arjumand received a joint PhD in Computer Science from National University of Ireland Galway (Ireland) and University of Milano-Bicocca (Italy), MS degree in Computer Science from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (South Korea), and BS in Computer Science from the University of Karachi (Pakistan). She is the recipient of Google Women Techmakers scholarship for Europe, Middle East and Africa region. Her research focuses on Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, and Data Science for Social Good. Arjumand is passionate about the value of artificial intelligence technology to make society better, and at the moment is involved as an academic partner in various AI for Social Good projects.

Arjumand Younus

Co-Director | arjumand.younus@ucd.ie

Dr Valesca Lima is currently Assistant Professor at Dublin City University. She specializes in governance, housing policy, political participation and social movement studies. She joined Women in Research Ireland in 2020 and has championed the common interests of academics on precarious contracts towards the goal of sustainable careers since 2018, when she was president of the Maynooth Research Staff Association (MURA). She co-founded the Irish Research Staff Association (IrishRSA) and was its vice president for the period 2020-2021.

Valesca Lima

Co-Director | @valescal | valesca.lima@mu.ie

Dr. Susan Fetics received a BS in chemistry from New York University USA, an MS in chemistry from Georgetown University USA and a PhD in biochemistry from North Carolina State University USA. She has published her research in the fields of chemistry, genetics and structural biology. Following her American education, she moved to Europe to pursue a biochemistry career. Initially she lived in France and
was a research fellow at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in Gif-sur-Yvette. She then received a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions award to continue research at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. She is an internationally recognized expert in Protein Crystallography. Susan is mentor and teacher to scientists at all levels. She is a founding member and sub-chapter coordinator for the International Chapter of Graduate Women in Science (@gwis_internat) and a founding member and advisory chair for Women in Research Ireland (WIRI). Susan is an advocate for work-life balance, diversity in research, scientific outreach for children and mental health awareness for scientists.

Susan Fetics

Co-Founder & Advisory Chair | Twitter/Instagram @SusanKathleenFe | LinkedIn

Anna is a research fellow in developmental neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin. She is a member of the Cusack Lab and her research focuses on combining neuroimaging with deep learning methods in order to model how the infants’ brain learns during the first year of life.
Outside academia she is passionate about science communication and she is part of an Italian association, Scientificast, dedicated to share scientific knowledge. For Scientificast Anna writes blog articles and participates in podcasts talking about neuroscience and psychology or interviewing experts in neighbouring fields.

Anna Truzzi

Secretary | truzzia@tcd.ie | @anna_truzzi

Mairead graduated with a PhD in Nutritional Sciences from UCC in 2009 and spent 10 years based at the National Cancer Registry undertaking research studies with CERVIVA (www.cerviva.ie). Her area of research centred around HPV infection and she conducted several studies around HPV infection in the context of cervical cancer and head and neck cancers. She has significant expertise in qualitative/quantitative research methods, theory-based intervention development and systematic reviewing. Her other research interests include behavioural science and cancer survivorship. She is passionate about the HPV vaccine and scicomm. She is currently a research fellow with the School of Public Health at UCC.

Mairead O'Connor

Treasurer | maireadoconnor@ucc.ie

Dr Éadaoin Butler was awarded a PhD in Health Science from the University of Auckland New Zealand. She is particularly interested in the views and experiences of healthcare service users and providers. She has researched topics including caregiver acceptance of early childhood obesity prediction, maternal views of vaginal seeding, and the experiences of people receiving abortion care in Ireland. Éadaoin is currently a Health Researcher with the HSE Sexual Health and Crisis Pregnancy Programme and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Scool of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College Dublin. Éadaoin joined the WIRI committee in 2021.

Éadaoin Butler

Charity Regulator Manager | Twitter @eadaoin_butler | LinkedIn

Jinan is an Ireland India Institute PhD Fellow at Dublin City University researching James Joyce and Anglophone South Asian avant-garde writing. She is the recipient of the Laura Bassi Scholarship Summer 2021 for research against the grain on James Joyce and Indian modernism. She is published in The Modernist Review and her articles are forthcoming/published in the Dublin James Joyce Journal and the James Joyce Broadsheet. Her essay on James Joyce and critical pedagogy in India is published in English Teachers’ Accounts, a Routledge publication on English Studies in India (ed. Nandana Dutta).

Jinan Ashraf

Public Relations Officer

Cathy has enjoyed a career in Higher Education for over twenty years, in many areas including graduate administration, assessment and program review and accreditation compliance. She returned to Ireland recently after living in the U.S. She earned a BA in English and French and an MA in Women’s Studies from University College Dublin. She earned a Doctorate in Education in Organization and Leadership from University of San Francisco in 2009. A chapter on her doctoral dissertation on Women College Presidents and Authentic Leadership Theory and Development was published in 2013 in Cracking the Wall 20 Years Later: Women in Higher Education Leadership, Edited by Patricia Turner Mitchell, PhD.
Cathy served on the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Branch of American Association of University Women (AAUW) a non-profit organisation dedicated to advancing equity for women and girls through education, advocacy and research. She served as President for three years, and Treasurer for five years. She was awarded the Sarah Dix Hamlin Leadership Award in 2016 for her contributions to the branch. Cathy is a member of the National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) and serves on the committee of Women in Research Ireland (WIRI). Cathy is a staunch supporter of women's, minority, and LGBTQ+ rights.

Cathy Corcoran

Ordinary Committee Member

Dr Joanne Kenney is a cognitive neuroscientist having worked as an Assistant Professor in Psychology at Dublin City University and as a research scientist at Trinity College Dublin and Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. She was Co-Director of Women in Research IE from 2019-2021 and Secretary from 2018-2019. She is currently Vice-President of Trinity Women Graduates, a 100 year old organisation at Trinity College Dublin that supports and inspires women at the university. She is passionate about equality in higher education and mental health advocacy.

Joanne Kenney

Co-Founder & Ordinary Committee Member

Emily is a PhD researcher at the Centre for BioNano Interactions (CBNI) based in University College Dublin, where she studies nanoscale recognition in bio-nano interactions. She obtained her B.A. (Mod) in Biochemistry from Trinity College Dublin. She accessed higher education through the DARE (Disability Access Route to Education) scheme and has since been involved in many outreach projects to encourage equity in higher education. In her time outside the lab, she has been involved in many science communication programs which seek to platform under-represented voices in academia and spread the love of science to a wider audience.

Emily Sheridan

Web Manager | @EmilyCSheridan

Doaa Amin is a SPHeRE Programme PhD researcher in the School of Public Health, Physiotherapy & Sports Science at University College Dublin (UCD), and she is a part of the CARA Network, which is a collaboration aiming at reducing antimicrobial use and resistance in Ireland. Doaa likes to work with numbers a lot and she originally has a background in computer science, majoring in operations research and decision support, and a master's degree in system dynamics from the University of Bergen in Norway. She likes to volunteer, read, colour (esp. on glass), listen to music, discover new places and do loads of walking!

Doaa Amin

Ordinary Committee Member | Twitter: @Doaa_155

Radhya is a Marie Curie SMART 4.0 Research Fellow at CONFIRM SFI Research Centre for Smart Manufacturing, University College Cork, Ireland. She received her M.Sc and PhD in computer science from the Faculty of Computers and Artificial Intelligence at Cairo University, Egypt. She held a postdoctoral position with CONFIRM SFI Research Centre for Smart Manufacturing, University of Galway, Ireland. She was working on IoT Data Analytics for Smart Manufacturing. Radhya has publications in Blockchain, Digital Twins, Big Data, Cloud databases, IoT, Industry 4.0, and Healthcare. Her research interests include Blockchain, Digital Twins, Big Data, the Internet of Things (IoT), Healthcare, Industry 4.0, Smart Manufacturing, Smart Cities, Stream Processing, and Query Optimization over large-scale distributed data systems.

Radhya Sahal

Ordinary Committee Member | LinkedIn

Dr Anna Viola Sborgi is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow at the Department of Film and Screen Media, University College Cork, Ireland, where she also teaches modules on the Home on Screen and Sustainable Futures in Global Cinema. Her research interests are in film, media, and urban studies. She was previously Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Genoa, Italy. She holds a PhD in Film Studies (King’s College London) and a PhD in Comparative Literature (University of Genoa). Recent publications include “Grenfell on Screen” in After Grenfell: Violence, Resistance and Response (Pluto Press, 2019) and “Housing Problems: Britain’s Housing Crisis and Documentary” in Cinema of Crisis: Film and Contemporary Europe (EUP, July 2020).

Her current project, MEDIAHOMES: Housing Precarity on Screen in Ireland, Portugal and the UK from the 2008 crisis to COVID-19, investigates mediations of housing precarity across Ireland, the UK and Portugal from the 2008 crisis to COVID-19. It develops a transnational model to analyse media representations of the home and how its transformation into a site of creative labour during the global pandemic intersects with socioeconomic and, in particular, gender inequality. Gender is a the core of her research and she joined WIRI as an ordinary committee member because she is passionate about equality and wider representation of women and under-represented groups in academia and beyond.

Anna Viola Sborgi

Ordinary Committee Member | @AnnaViolaSborgi

As one of the original co-founders, Martha has spent the last two years juggling various roles on the committee including co-director, treasurer, and PRO. Currently, she is one of the trustees for WIRI. With a background in Chemistry, she is currently undertaking a PhD in Advanced Optical Materials Synthesis in Trinity College Dublin. However, her passion for gender equality, science communication, and climate activism means she sometimes ventures out of her lab and into the real world. Over the years, Martha has been directly involved in many science communication and outreach projects, including the organisation and running of FameLab Dublin with the British Council of Ireland.

Martha Gulman

Co-Founder | @GulmanMartha | mgulman@tcd.ie

Roisin is a postdoctoral researcher studying the effects of obesity on the anti-cancer immune response in Trinity College Dublin. She was recently awarded the 2019 Irish Cancer Society biomedical research fellowship. She has been a committee member of Women in Research Ireland (WiRI) since 2017 and is now the committee secretary. The first ever WIRI event Roisin attended was delivered by Dr Patricia Eadie on mentorship. From this first event, Roisin knew she wanted to be a part of a group that provides much needed support to women and minorities in academia.

Roisin Loftus

Ordinary Committee Member | @loftusro | loftusro@tcd.ie

Karen has been involved in WIRI since 2017, and has served various roles on the committee including Secretary and Director. Karen is working towards a PhD in Immunology at Trinity College Dublin, and through this she has witnessed the gender bias that exists within academia. She is passionate about equality for everyone, and takes pride in organising events that highlight and inform people on issues that women and minorities face in academia and in society. Karen's personal interests include scuba diving and eating tasty food.

Karen Slattery

Ordinary Committee Member | @_Karen__S_ | kslatte@tcd.ie

Megan is postdoctoral research fellow in the Molecular Rheumatology research group in Trinity College Dublin. She completed her Irish Research Council funded PhD in May 2020 under the supervision of Prof Ursula Fearon. Megan’s research focuses on myeloid cells in Rheumatoid Arthritis with particular interests in synovial tissue macrophages and immunometabolism. Megan is extremely passionate about science communication and is currently Co-Director of the Pint of Science Ireland festival as well as founder/host of the weekly science communication podcast Unravelling Science. She joined WIRI in 2020 to create awareness and opportunities for women in research and to inspire the younger generation!

Megan Hanlon

Ordinary Committee Member | megan.hanlon@ucdconnect.ie

Deirdre Dunlevy lectures in linguistics at Ulster University and the Open University. She completed her BA (Hons) at University College Cork, and MPhil and PhD in linguistics at Trinity College, Dublin. She previously held research fellowships at Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Edinburgh. Her main research interests lie within sociolinguistics, in particular in minoritised languages (with a focus on Galician, Basque, Catalan and Irish), language policy, language attitudes and the linguistic landscape as methods of exploring issues of identity and community. Her co-edited volume Multilingualism in Public Spaces: Empowering and Transforming Communities will be published in 2021. She is a member of WIRI since 2020.

Deirdre Adrienne Dunlevy

Ordinary Committee Member | dunlevyd@tcd.ie | @deeirl

Suzanne is a permanent legal researcher at the Law Reform Commission, which is an independent statutory body that keeps Irish law under review. She is currently working on two research projects within the Commission: one on the review and consolidation of the law on sexual offences, and another on the reform of non-court adjudicative bodies and appeals to courts. She has previously carried out on the accessibility of legislation, human trafficking, prison suicide, and complaint mechanisms in prisons.

Suzanne Scott

Ordinary Committee Member | sscott@lawreform.ie

Moria is currently a graduate student at Trinity College Dublin studying an MSc in Development Practice, where she is also class represtiveine, and assists with Public Relations and graphic design for WIRI. She also received an MA in Comparative Criminology from Maynooth University in August 2018. Her dissertation focused on corporate governance in Ireland and Kuwait. Current research focuses on the intersection of Islamic Finance and the West coupled with passion for financial regulation and social responsibility. While finance is seen as a neutral space she has seen the effects of gender imbalance not just in research but in corporate spaces. The representation of women and minorities is vital to positive, informed decisions. She joined WIRI in 2020 to support the aims of the organisation. Every individual young person achieving an educational aim is a victory!

Moria Crowley

Ordinay Committee Member | crowlemo@tcd.ie | @Halls_of_Durin

Eimear is working towards a PhD at the Trinity Translational Medicine Institute in the field of cancer immunology. She joined WIRI to help in the creation and promotion of opportunities for women and other minorities within the research environment. Providing a place for women and other minorities to connect with each other, and share experiences and advice is something Eimear feels passionate about.ng and eating tasty food.

Eimear Mylod

Ordinary Committee Member | mylode@tcd.ie

Lydia has been a WIRI committee member since 2018. She is currently working as a Postdoc in the School of Biochemistry and Immunology in Trinity College Dublin for which she has been awarded an Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship. She is investigating the impact of obesity on the immune system, cancer development and cancer immunotherapy. Lydia has joined WIRI to create opportunities for women and other minorities in the research environment to speak out, get advice, connect, and progress their careers. Lydia is also a passionate science communicator and has been involved in science outreach activities, such as EU Researcher’s Night, Irish Society for Immunology workshops for school kids and the RTE program “10 Things To Know About”.

Lydia Dyck

Ordinary Committee Member | @lydidyck | dyckl@tcd.ie

Gillian has been involved with WIRI since the charity’s founding, partaking in various roles and functions within the committee. Working in research for many years, she feels passionately about providing support for women and under-represented groups in the workplace. She hopes to help bring people together from different professional backgrounds to build a diverse community and network. Gillian has a PhD in Immunology from Trinity College Dublin, and currently works in clinical research development as a medical writer. She has also been actively involved with various science communication initiatives, and is currently contributing to post-doctoral research in social science
and education at Trinity.

Gillian Barber

Ordinary Committee Member | barberg@tcd.ie | @Gillian_Barber_

Rebecca (she/her) is a founding member of WIRI and has undertaken numerous roles in the committee from Co-director, trustee and PRO to OCM. She completed her PhD in Biochemistry in March 2020 and Rebecca currently works as a postdoctoral research fellow and biobank manager in the Department of Haematology at Trinity College Dublin and St James' Hospital. Rebecca has a passion for fairness and equity in all areas of life and strives to create a more diverse and inclusive environment in research and education. Additionally, she has a passion for science communication having been involved in several science communication and outreach initiatives from teaching and facilitating workshops to reviving the Pint of Science festival in Ireland in 2018 as co-director. Rebecca has a particular interest in public patient involvement (PPI) and equity in access to education and science. Rebecca hopes that WIRI will provide a safe and inclusive place for minorities and underrepresented groups in research, allowing them to reach their full potential.

Rebecca Amet

Co-Founder and Ordinary Committee Member | rebecca.amet@gmail.com

Amy is a student at the Graduate School of International Culture and Communication Studies in Waseda University, Tokyo. She is a recipient of the Monbukagakusho (MEXT) Scholarship, a Japanese governmental scholarship allowing international students to complete full degree programmes in Japan. Finishing the BA(Hons) World Languages programme at University College Cork in 2019, she has continued study in the field of linguistics, and is currently researching the representations of gender, ethnicity, sexuality, and reflections of the self in beauty advertising. Amy joined the WIRI committee in 2020 as an Ordinary Committee Member.

Amy Grace Metcalfe

Ordinary Committee Member | @AmyGMetcalfe | agmetcalfe@toki.waseda.jp

Kara is currently a student in the MPhil Philosophy program at Trinity College Dublin, where she is a George J. Mitchell Scholar, and the Public Relations Officer for WIRI. As a woman researching AI fairness, a field at the intersection of two disciplines with gender imbalances—Philosophy and Computer Science—she cares about creating supportive spaces for women and minorities in research, and believes equal representation in those fields will support the development of technology that is fair to all. Prior to moving to Ireland and joining WIRI, she was co-president of Lean In at Columbia University, where she received her undergraduate degree in English and Computer Science. (Past Public Relations Officer)

Kara Schechtman

Website Consultant | @karaschechtman | schechtk@tcd.ie

Sandrine Uwase Ndahiro is an English Ph.D. student in the University of Limerick. Sandrine’s research centres on third generation African writers, such as Afrofuturists, who have emerged during the era of late liberalism and who have introduced multiple and nuanced perspectives for reflecting on African lives and aspirations. She recently co-produced a documentary entitled Unsilencing Black Voices which details personal stories and accounts by members of the black community in Ireland. Sandrine’s work now highlights the need to the lived experiences of the Black and Irish community with her recent publication of her essay ‘Irishness does not mean whiteness’.

Sandrine Ndahiro

Ordinary Committee Member | Sandrine.Ndahiro@ul.ie

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