Briefly, tell us about your background and career up to this point?
I’m a physicist by background, but my work now sits very much in technology development for microscopy, particularly fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM), and using them to help answer biological and clinical questions. What I enjoy most is the mix of physics, engineering and biology, and the chance to build tools that can reveal something meaningful rather than just produce a good-looking image.
What is a typical day like for you?
A typical day might include teaching, meeting with students and postdocs, discussing experiments with collaborators, writing grants or papers, and thinking through new instrument designs. A lot of my work sits at the intersection of technology development and real biological application, so I am often switching between optics, data processing and analysis, and the bigger scientific questions we are trying to answer.
What advice would you give to your 18-year-old self?
Do not worry so much about having a perfectly mapped-out plan. I started my degree with the goal to work in astronomy and ended up in microscopy. Some of the best opportunities come from following your curiosity rather than trying to predict exactly where you should end up.
What do you think people in the School would find most surprising about you?
Probably that I played water polo to a decent level when I was younger. My team were runners-up in the Irish Under-16 Water Polo Championship.
Do you have any current projects that you’d like to tell us about?
My team is currently working on two projects I’m really excited about. One is a tomographic FLIM system, which is about finding better and faster ways to recover functional imaging information from complex 3D cell cultures. The other is a FLIM-flow system, where we are trying to optically interrogate and subsequently sort cells in flow cytometry using fluorescence lifetime measurements. They’re quite different projects, but both are about getting beyond simple images and towards something more functional and informative.
Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?
Hopefully out of probation! Haha.
What is something positive that happened to you over the last year?
A real positive from the last year was getting the FLIMposium off the ground. It was a one-day symposium at the Science Gallery focused on the latest advances in Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy (FLIM). It was great to see so many people from different backgrounds come together and have some genuinely interesting discussions about where the field is going. The response was overwhelmingly positive, and we are now planning to expand the event to include hands-on training as well as talks.
QUICK-FIRE:
Netflix (or TV) recommendation: The Expanse (Prime). A fantastic series with a science-fiction setting that still feels grounded in real physics.
Coffee order: I Hate coffee…can’t beat a cup of tea though!
The superpower you would choose if you could: Stopping time. Handy before a grant submission.
Favourite London restaurant: Brown’s in Canary Wharf. Drives my wife crazy but they have so many menu options.