17 October, Birr Theatre at 9:45 am
Timothy Hurley is a transmission network planning manager in EirGrid where he is responsible for identifying transmission system needs and progressing grid reinforcements to address those needs.
He has worked for over 20 years across a variety of roles with EirGrid. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electronic and electrical engineering from University College Dublin (UCD) and master’s degrees in electrical power systems engineering from UCD and University of Manchester.
17 October, Birr Theatre at 10:15 am
Seamus leads Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) sales at Siemens Energy Ireland having joined them in 2021. Seamus has worked with leading edge companies in Ireland both during his electrical trade apprenticeship 2003 -2008 and following graduation in 2010 from Shannon Technological University with a Bachelor of Science in Renewable and Electrical Energy Systems.
During his time as Operations Engineer for 7 years at General Electric in Galway, Seamus completed a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechatronics, Robotics and Automation Engineering at the Atlantic Technological University in Sligo.
Seamus previously worked with Kirby Group, leading the department responsible for developing substations across Europe and also spent time working for Johnson & Johnson Vision in Limerick, the largest contact lens manufacturing facility in the world.
As part of the Siemens Energy Ireland management team, he collaborates with other Business Unit leaders in the UK, Ireland and Germany to develop projects contributing towards Ireland’s Net Zero goals.
17 October, Birr Theatre at 10:45am
Caitríona Sheridan is Head of Strategy and Innovation at FuturEnergy Ireland where her work focuses on initiatives to accelerate the delivery of onshore wind, with enabling solutions, to make significant contributions to Ireland's renewable energy targets.
She has over a decade of experience in the power systems and renewable energy sector, and has held roles in consultancy, operations, network planning, and development. Caitríona is a Chartered Electrical Engineer with a Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from UCC, and a Doctorate from Imperial College London specialising in HVDC technologies for offshore application.
17 October, Birr Theatre at 11:15 am
Aindrias Lefévère-Laoide is a Climate Policies Officer at EDF Group, France, specializing in energy and climate policy with a particular focus on carbon markets.
He is an engineer by training, with expertise in carbon accounting and climate risk analysis within large corporate environments.
Aindrias holds Master degrees from the École Normale Supérieure (ENS) de Lyon and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), as well as an MBA from the Collège des Ingénieurs.
17 October, Birr Theatre at 3:15 pm
Nick O'Mahony, Managing Director, leads a team of over 100 employees serving the Utility, Datacentre and Renewable Energy markets. Siemens Energy is one of the world’s leading energy technology companies. The company works with its customers and partners on energy systems for the future, supporting the transition to a more sustainable world. Nick and his team have executed key projects in Ireland, such as the Celtic and Greenlink HVDC Interconnectors to France and the UK, Hydrogen ready Gas Turbines for key Utility customers, and Grid Stabilisers that allow more renewables to be connected to the Grid. Nick is currently focussed on solutions and supply chain for the Offshore Wind, Transmission Grid and Datacentre markets. Prior to joining Siemens 20 years ago Nick worked in various engineering and management roles in Belgium, France and the US.
17 October, Birr Theartre at 3:45 pm
John Fitzgerald is CEO of SuperNode Ltd, the Irish cutting-edge technology company specialising in next-generation superconducting cable systems. John has extensive experience of power systems and grid infrastructure. He was the Director of Grid Development & Interconnection with EirGrid, the Irish TSO, with responsibility for all onshore transmission and the development and operation of Interconnection. Prior to this, John was Project Director of the East West Interconnector, directly connecting the electricity markets of Ireland and Britain for the first time in 2012 with, what was then, the largest HVDC scheme of its kind in the World.
Before joining EirGrid, John was involved in the area of business development for ESB International where he held a number of business development management positions in Europe and Asia. John has been involved in the successful development of major energy infrastructure projects and corporate initiatives in the electricity and gas sectors across Ireland, the United Kingdom and Europe. A graduate of University College Dublin, he is a Bachelor of Electronic Engineering and holds an MBA from the UCD School of Business.
17 October, Birr Theatre at 4:15 pm
Tina Raleigh, Head of Offshore, Statkraft Ireland, is an experienced renewable energy expert with over 25 years’ experience in the sector. In her various roles, she has amassed a wide and varied expertise in all aspects of environmental, infrastructural and energy projects, from inception, planning through to detailed project design and construction. She has advised on the development of over 1,000MW of onshore wind and solar projects. As Head of Offshore, she oversees the development of Statkraft’s Irish offshore wind portfolio – supporting Ireland to reach its target of having 5 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2030. Tina is a Chartered Engineer with a degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from University College Cork.
18 October, Birr Theatre at 16:10 pm
David has been afflicted with the astronomy bug for nearly fifty years. Upon leaving school, he was apprenticed to the former workshop manager, David Sinden, at the Howard Grubb Parsons Telescope Company in Newcastle, where he acquired a love of big telescopes and very strong tea. David has lectured extensively on the history of astronomy and space exploration in the Northeast of England. He is also the host of Radio Northumberland’s ‘The Great Geordie Space Race’.
18 October, Birr Theatre at 15:15 pm

Education:
Undergraduate: B.A. (Hons) 1st Class (Natural Sciences), Trinity College,
Dublin. Foundation Scholar, Hackett Prize
Graduate: M.S., Ph.D. (Physics), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Career
Research, Post-Doctoral Fellow MIT 1968-1969
1963 Internship Goddard Space Flight Centre
Post-Doctoral Fellow Caltech 1970
Royal Greenwich Observatory 1970-1975
• Senior Research Fellow
• Senior Scientific Officer
• Principal Scientific Officer
South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) 1975-2005
• Senior Research Officer
• Chief Research Officer
• Senior Chief Research Officer
• After compulsory retirement 2000-2005 “Senior Research Fellow”
• Currently “Associate Research Astronomer”
Adjunct Professor, James Cook University, Australia (since 2010)
Visiting positions:
Visitor at RO Cape/SAAO from RGO, Oct 1971-Sept 1974
Associate, European Southern Observatory, Munich, Germany 1980-81
University of Arizona, USA
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
Institut d'Astrophysique, Paris, France
Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, UK
Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India
Visiting Professor National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
Research output
Author or co-author of about 224 astrophysical research papers in
journals and conference proceedings, mainly in infrared astronomy.
Google Scholar (2025) gives total citations 11000 and H-index 59
History of astronomy ca 25 papers
Books
Victorian Telescope Makers: The Lives and Letters of Thomas and Howard
Grubb, IOP. Bristol and Philadelphia, 1997
Handbook of Infrared Astronomy, CUP, Cambridge, 1999
Revolutionaries of the Cosmos: The Astro-physicists, OUP, Oxford, 2006
Proxima, the Nearest Star (Other than the Sun), Mons Mensa, 2008
Nicolas-Louis de la Caille, Astronomer and Geodesist, OUP, Oxford, 2012
The Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope, Mons Mensa, 2015
Current Interests:
Astronomical Museum and Archives, SAAO
Astronomical History
Memberships: International Astronomical Union, Royal Society of South Africa, Astronomical Society of Southern Africa (Hon Memb, former President, Gill Medallist, McIntyre Award), Probus (Groote Schuur), Owl Club, MG Club & U3A.
Editorial Boards, MNASSA & Journal of Astronomical History & Heritage
18 October, Birr Theatre at 10:45 am
Dr. Jackie Uí Chionna teaches History at the University of Galway. She has combined a career in heritage management with academia and academic research. A graduate of UCD in History and English, she holds a PhD in History(NUIG), an MA in Heritage Management(Hons I) from UCC, and a Higher Diploma in Education (Hons I) from Trinity College Dublin. Her specialism is in modern Irish history, and she has a particular interest in the social and cultural history of the revolutionary period, 1912-1922, and the emergence of the independent Irish state. Her other research interests include oral history, the history of Irish family businesses, and the history of education.
Dr. Uí Chionna is currently an Associate Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research, School of Advanced Studies, at the University of London.
Her recent research is more global in nature, and relates to the history of intelligence, specifically cryptography and the breaking of codes for the purposes of wartime intelligence gathering. She was awarded an Archives By-Fellowship at Churchill College Cambridge in 2019 where she undertook research on the history of codebreaking during the First and Second World Wars. Her biography of Emily Anderson OBE, entitled Queen of Codes: The Secret Life of Emily Anderson, Britain's Greatest Female Code Breaker (Headline UK), was published in April 2023.The book was shortlisted for the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography in 2024. She was recently awarded the Byrne-Bussey Marconi Fellowship in the History of Science, Technology and Communication at the Bodleian Library Oxford, to progress her research on the women codebreakers recruited from Oxbridge all-women colleges during the First and Second World Wars.
Jackie is an experienced oral historian, and has used oral history extensively in her research. A fluent Irish speaker, she has taught history courses through the medium of Irish and has incorporated Irish language sources extensively in her publications and conference presentations.
Dr. Uí Chionna is the Editor of the Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society, in which capacity she has produced nine Volumes of the Journal (2016-2024). An accomplished media performer, she has contributed to numerous TV and Radio documentaries in Ireland and the UK, in both Irish and English.
18 October, Birr Theatre at 11:15 am
John Fuller Atkins is a research professor at University College Cork, and an honorary Professor of Genetics in his alma mater, Trinity College Dublin.
John has been full-time engaged in research since 1965, apart from 4 years in the 1980s when he also lectured in Biochemistry in UCC, and in 2002-2003 when he was first Director of Life Sciences and Biotechnology in the then newly formed Science Foundation Ireland. Half of his research was performed in the US, and a small component in a major international company. John is the first Irish national to be elected as a member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation.
In 2007, John received the first gold medal for Life Sciences from the Royal Irish Academy of which he is a member.
He has co-edited all 5 editions of the RNA Worlds books that include 25 chapters by Nobel laureates (or who subsequently received that prize). John’s primary research publications are listed (many fully viewable) on ‘pubmed’ (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/) by entering ‘Atkins JF’ (only two of the publications listed are not his).
Charles Jencks, was commissioned by Professors John Atkins (UCC) and David McConnell (TCD) for creation of a sculpture representing DNA and RNA. This sculpture is in the National Botanic Gardens, Dublin. Its opening ceremony was on the 60th anniversary of the discovery of the structure of DNA in April 1953. Its RNA representative components have several novel features – perhaps fittingly given the unexpected diversity of types of RNA discovered in the relatively recent past and their importance.
18 October, Birr Theatre at 15:45 am

John has 40 years’ experience in the design and operation of the built environment in Australia and Ireland. He is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of Engineers Ireland and the Charterer Institute of Building Services Engineers. John is also a Chartered Energy Manager through the Energy Institute.
John is a member of the Cork Astronomy Club, ICOMOS and the Irish Heritage Council. John is particularly interested in promoting and preserving Ireland's rich engineering and scientific heritage. The annual Birr STEAM Festival is an initiative that supports the work of the Parsons Family and the Birr Castle Demesne.
187 October, Birr Theatre at 10:15 am
Education:
Bachelor of Chemical Engineering, Aston University, Birmingham
Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, London
Professional Memberships:
ICOMOS International – Past President of International Scientific Committee on Energy, Sustainability & Climate Change (2013-2020)
ICOMOS Ireland – Past President of National Scientific Committee on Energy, Sustainability & Climate Change which published on the ‘Effects of Climate Change on World Heritage Sites’
Sustainable Traditional Buildings Alliance Climate Heritage Network & ZNCC (Zero Net Carbon Collaborative)
Background:
As founding member of Carrig Conservation, Peter Cox has gained over thirty-five years’ experience of stone conservation in historic structures and in the analysis of all porous building materials. With a primary degree in chemical engineering and masters in material science, he is an authority on the analysis of masonry decay and on treating stone and mortar in historic structures. As an active member of ICOMOS, and as ICOMOS Ireland President from 2003-2006, Peter sits on a number of international committees, working with Governments to improve legislation and policies on conservation, and in particular on energy efficiency in our heritage & traditional building stock.
Peter represented ICOMOS International on the CEN (Central European Standards Committee) Expert Technical Committee that produced European standard, EN 16883:2017 ‘Conservation of Cultural Heritage – Guidelines’ for improving the energy performance of historic buildings. He has authored ‘Retrofitting Heritage Buildings’ as part of RIBA’s ‘Sustainable Building Conservation: Theory and Practice of Responsive Design in the Heritage Environment’, published in 2015. Peter is an active member of the Sustainable Traditional Building Alliance (STBA).
As guest and visiting lecturer to universities nationally and throughout the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States, Peter has also completed lecture tours of China, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, South and North America lecturing on ‘Material Conservation of 20th Century Buildings; the ‘Energy Efficiency of Heritage & Traditional Buildings’ and on the effects of ‘Climate Change on our World Heritage Sites’.
Carrig has published many reports, including: Gap Analysis in Skills & Training for the Retrofit of Traditional Buildings; Guidelines in the Energy Retrofit of Traditional Buildings; Understanding Carbon in the built environment; Climate Change Adaptation Sectoral Plan for Archaeological & Built Heritage among others.