Project Team

Dr. John O'Sullivan

Associate Professor

Dr. O'Sullivan is School Head of UCD Civil Engineering, a member of the UCD Dooge Centre for Water Resources Research and a Fellow of the UCD Earth Institute. He is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin (BA, BAI, 1993), the Queen's University of Belfast (MSc, 1994) and the University of Ulster (PhD, 1999). Dr. O’Sullivan has over 25 years teaching and research experience in water resources engineering. His primary research experience centres on hydrology, hydraulics, and hydrodynamic modelling and he has been a Principle Investigator on many national and European projects in these areas. He has published over 65 international peer reviewed journal papers and in excess of 60 conference papers. He is an Editor for the International Water Association (IWA) Journal of Water Supply and has served as External Examiner for Research Masters and PhD Theses both nationally and internationally. He has also served on a wide range of Engineers Ireland Professional Accreditation Panels.

Dr. Mary Kelly Quinn

Professor

Professor Mary Kelly-Quinn is an applied freshwater ecologist in the School of Biology and Environmental Science, University College Dublin (UCD) and a member of the UCD Earth Institute. Her current research is primarily based on streams and rivers, but she has undertaken projects on lakes, ponds, canals, hyporheic fauna and riparian zones. The focus of her research is on assessment of land-use and other anthropogenic activities on the physical, hydrochemical and ecological quality of surface waters with particular reference in recent years to multiple stressors and climate change. She is particularly interested in the small stream network and the level of intervention needed to not only protect water quality and biodiversity in headwaters but also to improve water quality further downstream. She has also led projects and published on ecosystem services and engaged in research on natural capital accounting.

Dr. Payam Sajadi

UCD Research Fellow

Dr Payam Sajadi is UCD Research Fellow based in the School of Geography. Payam holds a PhD in Remote Sensing and GIS for Hydrological Modeling from Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. His research centres around the integration of three critical areas: Artificial Intelligence (AI), hydrological modeling, and remote sensing for environmental sustainability. Under the HymoGuide project, Payam is applying his expertise in data mining, machine learning, remote sensing, and big geospatial data analysis to investigate the pressures on hydromorphology through the meta-analysis of existing hydromorphology metrics, such as the Hydromorphological Quality Index (MQI) for Ireland and the River Hydromorphological Assessment Technique (RHAT) survey data. He is also using linear and non-linear approaches to investigate how these pressures are relate to established biological quality elements (BQEs), such as macroinvertebrate Q-values and fish populations.

Mr Juan Quintero

Juan Quintero is a geological engineer from the National University of Colombia and holds a Master's in Geosciences (Universidade do Minho) and a Master's in Earth, Planetary and Environmental Sciences (Université de Lille) from the Erasmus Mundus PANGEA programme. His research focuses on nature conservation and sustainable management of geological resources and landforms, but he has worked in projects related to coastal geomorphology, palaeontology, environmental education and citizen science. He coordinated the NatGeo Society project "The Laboratory Island: Teaching Young People Earth System Sciences for Developing Environmental Awareness” in Isla Fuerte, Colombian Caribbean, and recently completed an RA role on the Coastal Uplands: Heritage and Tourism (CUPHAT) project, using citizen science activities and digital technologies for the dissemination of the geological and mining heritage of the Wicklow and Blackstairs Mountains.

William Roche

Dr William Roche is senior fisheries biologist at Inland Fisheries Ireland, with very broad experience across salmonid, coarse fish and marine recreational angling species research, which he is bringing to the HymoGuide project. His roles include leading on the EMFF-funded Irish Marine Recreational Angling Survey (IMREC), a national study to collect marine recreational fisheries catch data, and managing the WFD TRAC fish monitoring programme for IFI. Willie also works on several externally funded salmonid projects (mainly using acoustic tagging) and is IFI lead for COMPASS (‘network of buoys’), SMOLTRACK (a pan-European consortium) and joint IFI lead on the INTERREG funded DIADES project. He is long-time Secretary of the Irish Specimen Fish Committee.

Dr Matthew O’Hare, PhD

cbec Eco-Engineering

Dr Matthew O’Hare is an internationally recognised expert, with over 25 years’ experience working across the UK and Europe on freshwater systems subject to multiple stresses. He has been heavily involved in the practical implementation of environmental policy and legislation, especially the EU Water Framework Directive. He has provided technical advice to the EU through ECOSTAT and on innovative, strategic development as an assessor of the Water Works programme, an EU joint programming initiative (JPI), Water JPI (‘Water challenges for a changing world’) and FACCE-JPI (‘Agriculture, food security and climate change’). He has also provided advice to individual member states, most recently as a member of the advisory board on a large project run by the Irish Environmental Protection Agency.

Dr Colm Casserly, PhD

cbec Eco-Engineering

Dr Colm Casserly is a Senior Consultant and Fluvial Geomorphologist with cbec’s International Team based in Ireland, and an Adjunct Research Fellow at UCD’s School of Geography. Specialising in fluvial processes, his area of expertise centres on the geomorphic impact that man-made infrastructure has on rivers and their capacity to disrupt connectivity. His role at cbec centres on managing on-going river restoration projects in Ireland, Iceland and Norway.
Dr Casserly’s role on the HymoGuide project will be to act as cbec’s internal project manager and the primary liaison between cbec and other project partners. Colm will also provide guidance and mentorship to cbec research staff working on WP2, WP3 and WP4.

Ms. Siofra Handibode

cbec Eco-Engineering

Siofra Handibode is a Consultant Geomorphologist with cbec’s International Team based in Ireland. She holds a BSc in Geography and Geology and an MSc in Risk, Resilience and Sustainability from University College Dublin, where she specialised in geomorphology, geology, environmental science and geospatial analysis. Her thesis work in both her undergraduate and MSc degrees involved exploring changes and influences on ice-rafted debris deposits off the West Coast of Ireland and changes in climate observed in the Arctic and Antarctic ice core data. Siofra's work at cbec includes contributing to project work in Ireland, Iceland and Norway by conducting topographic surveys, literature reviews and data analysis. As part of the HymoGuide Project, Siofra is working as a research assistant, supporting the production of the extensive literature review for WP2 and aiding in the initial phase of WP3.