Biography

I’m an active ocean-going scientist and have led numerous research cruises as Chief Scientist. My interests lie primarily in molecular evolution and systematics. I have a PhD from Liverpool University, worked at National Museums of Scotland as Curator of Mollusca for some years, before taking up an academic post first at Queen’s Univerity Belfast, and subsequently at University of Galway.

Among numerous contributions to academic and wider society, I have chaired the government’s Marine Protected Area Advisory Group, I’m a former president of the Cephalopod International Advisory Council, and a fellow and former Council Member of the Linnean Society. I was previously Editor-in-Chief of the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, editor of Journal of Natural History and member of the Editorial Board of Marine Biology and Oceanography: an Annual Review. I am a member of the IUCN Mollusc Specialist Group, and coordinator of the IUCN red data list for Cephalopoda. I was a member of WG2 of the Ocean 2030 UN Decade of the Ocean for Sustainable Development committee, am current Chair of the North Atlantic Regional Working Group of the UN Decade of the Ocean Programme Challenger 150, and a member of Ireland’s National Ocean Decade Committee. I’ve contributed to several ICES workshops and am a long term contributor to WGCEPH. I’m a member of the Royal Irish Academy.