Team

Professor Wim Meijer is Professor of Microbiology and Head of the School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science at University College Dublin. His research focuses on two thematic areas: water quality and human/animal health. Within this context he has directed research projects funded by national and international funding agencies including Science Foundation Ireland, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the European Union, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Health Service Executive. His water themed research focuses on water quality of bathing waters, rivers and streams, in relation to faecal contamination, pathogens and antimicrobial resistance, working closely with colleagues in other disciplines, with local authorities and national regulatory bodies. Professor Meijer’s research team leads the laboratory analysis for the National Wastewater Surveillance Programme, working in collaboration with colleagues from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, National Virus Reference Laboratory, Health Service Executive and Uisce Éireann. This programme aims to determine the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 and additional human viral pathogens, antimicrobial resistance genes as well as illicit drug use in the Irish population through wastewater-based epidemiology.

Associate Professor John O’Sullivan is Director of the UCD Dooge Centre for Water Resources Research in the School of Civil Engineering and is a Fellow of the UCD Earth Institute and a member. He has research interests in hydrology, hydraulics, and hydrodynamic and water quality modelling and he has been a Principal Investigator on national and European projects in these areas. Associate Professor O’Sullivan has published over 60 international peer reviewed journal papers and in excess of 70 conference papers. He is also an Editor for the International Water Association (IWA) Journal of Water Supply and Technology and a regular reviewer of articles in high impact international journals.

Professor Gregory O’Hare was the Head of the Department of Computer Science at University College Dublin (UCD) 2001-2004 and is one of the Principal Investigators and founders of the Science Foundation Ireland funded (€16.4M) Centre for Science and Engineering Technologies (CSET) entitled CLARITY: The Centre for Sensor Web Technologies (2008-2013). He has published over 330 refereed publications in Journals and International Conferences, 6 books and has won significant grant income (ca €28.00M).

Dr. Bartholomew Masterson is an Adjunct Professor of the School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science of University College Dublin. He was formerly a Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry at UCD and is a Member of the International Water Association.

Dr. Masterson has had a long-standing involvement in research on the microbial pollution of recreational waters. He set up a multidisciplinary research group in 1998 to undertake, together with partners at the University of Wales, an INTERREG-II funded study of microbial pollution of the bathing waters at Bray, Co. Wicklow. The partnership extended this research in the SMART project, funded by the INTERREG-IIIa programme, concerning recreational water quality in Dublin Bay and the quality of shellfish waters in Bannow Bay, Co. Wexford. He was the Irish project leader and a member of the International Management Board for the INTERREG-IIIb iCREW project with partners in France, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom. The work for iCREW involved the development of molecular biological source-tracking techniques to phenotype indicator microorganisms in the aquatic environment. Most recently, the Irish-Welsh partnership completed the INTERREG-IVA project “Smart Coasts = Sustainable Communities”, focusing on developing predictive models of microbial pollution and the application of source-tracking techniques.
At present Dr. Masterson is active in two further projects. Acclimatize, funded by the Ireland-Wales Co-operation Programme, seeks to elicit measures needed to cope with effects of climate change on bathing water pollution, and SWIM, funded by INTERREG-VA, seeks to establish the best predictive models of microbial pollution for selected bathing waters of the Irish trans-border region, and to develop public advisory signage.

Joanne Chadwick is a Research Project Manager in the UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science. Joanne has over 15 years’ experience in managing large scale national and international research projects, including several EU projects, focusing on human and environmental health (One Health). Joanne is responsible for the day-to-day management of the Acclimatize project and UCD’s work on the National Wastewater Surveillance Programme.

Dr Liam Reynolds is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, University College Dublin and is also a member of the Society of General Microbiology (SGM) and the Society for Applied Microbiology (SfAM).

Dr Reynolds completed his PhD on antimicrobial resistance gene discovery, at the Eastman Dental Institute, University College London. His PhD was partly funded by the Animal and Plant Health Agency and focused on the identification of novel antimicrobial resistance genes from the uncultivable bacteria of human saliva and calf faeces using a functional metagenomic approach. He was also involved in a number of voluntary outreach projects during his PhD and co-created the Swab and Send project which aimed to inform the public about antibiotic resistance by getting them involved in the hunt for novel antibiotics.

Dr Reynolds contributed to the INTERREG-IVA ‘Smart Coasts = Sustainable Communities’ project as a summer student and is now a postdoctoral researcher on the Acclimatize project in which he will quantify and determine the source of faecal contamination in Dublin bay by assessing faecal indicator bacteria.

Dr. Laura Sala-Comorera is a Postdoc Researcher with the Acclimatize Project.  She holds a BSc (Bachelor) in Environmental Science and PhD in Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology from the University of Barcelona. Her PhD research focused on the study and characterization of heterotrophic communities in natural mineral water and in drinking water treatment plants, as well the evaluation of different, efficient, robust and fast analytical methods to be applied in routine analysis.

Dr Sala-Comorera has 6 years experience in microbiological laboratories with the research group MARS (Health-Related Water Microbiology) and she has participated in several projects related to environmental microbiology. She is a member of the Catalan Biotechnology Reference Network, the Spanish Society for Microbiology and the Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Previously she was a member of the scientific committee for the Annual Congress of Young Researchers of the Water Research Institute within the University of Barcelona. Dr Sala-Comerera has attended several conferences related to her area of expertise and has published articles in indexed journals.

Niamh Martin is a Research Assistant in the School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science in University College Dublin.

Niamh graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a B.A. (Mod) in Zoology before obtaining her MSc in “Wildlife, Conservation Management,” from University College Dublin in 2014. Her research focused on the interaction between biodiversity and zoonotic diseases and their impact on human health. Following on from this, she worked as a field researcher in the south of France where she oversaw various conservation and habitat evaluation projects for butterflies and water birds. Niamh is interested in examining the interaction between avian biodiversity and bathing water quality, particularly in the face of climate change.

Jacob Kennedy is a Research Assistant in the School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science in University College Dublin.

Jacob graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a B.A. (Mod) in Genetics in 2022, where he completed his final project on a novel murine model of Age Related Macular Degeneration. Jacob joined the Acclimatize team two weeks following his final year exams and has since undertaken a range of responsibilities including coordination of undergraduate fieldwork teams and associated laboratory work, MST analyses by qPCR and Bioinformatics.

His role on the Acclimatize project is personal to Jacob having grown up in a boating environment, spending much of his childhood on and in the water in Ringsend Marina, Athlone and other canal systems.

Megan Whitty is a Research Assistant in the School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science in University College Dublin.

Megan graduated from University College Dublin with a BSc in Environmental Biology in 2019, and then went on to obtain an MSc in “Environmental Technology” from University College Dublin in 2020.

Megan has worked on a range of freshwater and saltwater research topics. For her undergraduate thesis, she investigated whether river impoundments impact oxygen and temperature profiles within riverine systems. Following on from this, for her master’s thesis she assessed the recovery potential of degraded marine plastics based on their physio-chemical compositions.

Before joining Acclimatize, Megan worked on the EU Swim Project, where she sampled and analysed bathing water as part of the development of a system for live bathing water monitoring.

Jayne Stephens is a PhD student at the School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science in University College Dublin.

She graduated with a BSc in Environmental Science from National University of Ireland Galway in 2014, majoring in mammal ecology. After completing her degree, Jayne was the successful Irish applicant to the Tropical Biological Association in Cambridge to carry out and complete a field course in tropical biodiversity and conservation in Tanzania, including a joint research project on pollination diversity at different altitudes. Jayne also worked in the EPA converging reports from county councils into the national database on waste management.

Following a number of years working and volunteering in the outdoors on conservation projects and water-sports in Ireland and New Zealand, Jayne became particularly interested in water pollution and water quality. She has been involved with beach clean ups; eradicating visible pollutants but is now focused on the scientific aspect of contamination at a microscopic level.

Jayne worked as a research assistant for four months before becoming a PhD student with Professor Wim Meijer on operation Acclimatize in microbiological research on contaminants in Irish bathing waters.

Tristan Nolan is a PhD student in the School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science in University College Dublin (UCD).

Tristan graduated from UCD with a BSc in Genetics, and a structured elective in statistics and data analytics in 2018. Tristan undertook his 4th year undergraduate project in Professor Wim Meijer’s laboratory, investigating pollution of rivers in Dublin, with an emphasis on microbial source tracking.

Tristan is from Ringsend, a small village located in south Dublin and adjacent to the river Liffey. Ringsend has a rich history with rowing, going back over 80 years. His family has rowed over multiple generations, and he has rowed since the age of 8, making his research very personal.

Dr Guanghai Gao completed his PhD in Hydro-environmental Modelling from Cardiff University. Guanghai’s PhD project involved the development and application of a hydro-environmental model to predict hydrodynamic, sediment transport and bacterial processes in riverine, coastal and estuarine waters.

He then worked as a Research Associate at Cardiff University on two different projects. One of the projects, Multidisciplinary Research in Tidal Stream Energy, involved developing hydro-environmental models to investigate environmental impacts of tidal energy projects in the Severn Estuary, UK. The other project, C2C CLOUD TO COAST: Integrated assessment of environmental exposure, health impacts and risk perceptions of faecal organisms in coastal waters, involved developing hydro-environmental models to simulate fate and transport of Faecal Indicator Bacteria in the Ribble Estuary, UK. Before joining the Acclimatize Project as a Research Scientist, Guanghai was a Lecturer in the department of Environmental Science and Engineering at Nankai University, China.

Dr. Aisling Corkery is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow with the Acclimatize Project at the UCD Dooge Centre for Water Resources Research in the School of Civil Engineering. Her research interests are in the areas of catchment-coastal hydrodynamics and pollutant transport. Dr. Corkery completed her PhD as part of the INTERREG-IVA ‘Smart Coasts = Sustainable Communities’ project focusing on the development and implementation of a real-time catchment-coastal modelling system to predict bathing water quality.

She holds an MSc in Water Resources Management (Distinction) from Queens University Belfast, a BE (Hons) in Structural Engineering from the Dublin Institute of Technology and a BSc in Zoology from UCD. Furthermore, Dr. Corkery has over 6 years’ experience in engineering consultancy and is a member of Engineers Ireland.

Dr. Conor Muldoon is a research scientist on the Acclimatize project in the School of Computer Science at UCD with research interests in the areas of Sensor Networks, Multi-Agent Systems, Distributed Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet of Things. Prior to the Acclimatize project, he worked on COBWEB (Citizen OBservatory Web), which was a multi-disciplinary FP7 project in areas of Crowdsourcing, Sensor Networks, and Citizen Science. As a postdoctoral researcher, he held two prestigious Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering, and Technology (IRCSET) fellowships, namely the INSPIRE Marie Curie International Mobility Fellowship and the Embark Fellowship. During the mobility fellowship, he was hosted at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford for an outgoing phase of two years and by the School of Computer Science at UCD for a return phase of one year. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science and a B.Sc. (Honours) degree in Computer and Software Engineering.

David Kay is Professor of Environment and Health at Aberystwyth University. He has acted as consultant and/or adviser on standards for recreational and drinking water to WHO, EU, USEPA, NERC, EPSRC, DEFRA, DWI, HPa, Scottish Government, Environment Agency, SEPA and WRc. He directed three EU RTD projects designed to strengthen the science evidence-base for revision of the 2006 Bathing Water Directive (EPIBATHE, VIROBATHE and VIROCLIME). Recently, David Kay acted as:

• specialist adviser to the House of Lords, European Communities Select Committee enquiry into the revision of the EU Bathing Water Directive;
• consultant to EU-DGXI on revised standards for bathing waters throughout the community;
• member Scientific Advisory Committee to NERC on the Environment and Human Health Initiative;
• member of the WHO steering group on diffuse pollution from livestock wastes and the effects on human health;
• adviser to the WHO on recreational water Guidelines design and water-related risk assessment;
• consultant to WHO and UNEP on the development of global disease burden assessment in the area of water and sanitation and the water and sanitation data used in the design of sustainable Development Goals
• adviser to USEPA on revision of the US Bathing water quality Guidelines; and
• consultant to the WHO and EU on the revision of the Bathing Water Directive (2006).

Dr Mark Wyer studied catchment nutrient dynamics for his MSc in Canada and his PhD in Wales. As a post-doctoral scientist, he has pioneered UK investigations into catchment microbial dynamics and delivery of faecal indicator organisms and pathogens to near-shore coastal waters. He has published over 100 scientific papers and reports in this area and completed associated work on the health effects of marine and fresh water recreational activities.

He led the work on real-time modelling of bathing water quality which took the Swansea Bay study site in the EU-funded Smart Coasts project from and ‘at-risk’ bathing water to a consistently ‘Good’ classification.  Mark is managing the Wales field teams for the Acclimatize project and will lead on data collection, collation, cleaning, analysis and reporting. In his spare time he loves hill walking and playing acoustic music.

Arwyn Edwards is Reader in Biosciences in the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences and Director of the Aberystwyth University interdisciplinary Centre for Environmental Microbiology. His research interests focus on the interactions between microbes in the environment and global challenges, and he has applied novel methods for genomics-based analyses of microbial communities across the world. He is currently an advisor to the Welsh Government on environmental science aspects of COVID-19. He has published over 60 papers since his 2009 PhD and currently leads two UKRI funded projects. Arwyn is leading the microbial source tracking component of ACCLIMATIZE.

Paula Hopkins has been the Senior Administrator for the Centre for Research into Environment and Health (CREH) since 1990.  Paula is responsible for clerical and financial audit aspects of EU structural fund projects completed by CREH. Previous projects include Smart Coasts Sustainable Communities (also with UCD in Ireland).  Other responsibilities have included public liaison, recruitment of field teams and procurement within Welsh Government and EU funded projects.

Carl Stapleton has over twenty-five years experience of research and consultancy in the fields of water quality, riverine, estuarine and coastal processes and geomorphology.  At the Centre for Research into Environment and Health Carl has been involved in a diverse range of water quality projects investigating potable water quality, bathing water quality, microbial and nutrient budget modelling, microbial tracers, microbial source tracking and examining the potential for eutrophication in coastal waters.

Carl has also reported on bathing water epidemiology, the impact of improved waste water treatment on disease burdens, the efficacy of treatment processes and has conducted novel research into the impacts of UV disinfection processes on untreated storm sewage effluents. Carl has extensive experience designing and managing research projects involving the deployment of large field teams, often involving the coordination of survey teams based on land and offshore (i.e. boat-based).