Science and Stormont 2018

Professor Jane Ohlmeyer, MRIA, is Erasmus Smith's Professor of Modern History at Trinity College Dublin. She is the Director of the Trinity Long Room Hub and has been Chair of the Irish Research Council since 2015. A passionate teacher and an internationally established scholar of early modern Irish history, Professor Ohlmeyer was the founding Head of TCD’s School of Histories and Humanities and Trinity’s first Vice-President for Global Relations. She served as a Trustee of the National Library of Scotland and the Caledonian Research Foundation, was a member of the Council of the Royal Historical Society and President of the Irish Historical Society. She is a Member of the Royal Irish Academy, the National Archives, the Irish Manuscripts Commission, and of a number of editorial boards. She is a non-executive director of the Sunday Business Post. She also serves on the Consortium of Humanities Centres and Institute’s international advisory board

Cathy is responsible for developing and leading research and impact strategies, ensuring that Ulster University achieves its research targets, and that its research informs teaching and benefits society both locally and globally.
She is a Professor of Politics with research interests in the areas of political elites, peace processes, the politics of divided societies, public policy and governance. Until 2016 she was based in the School of Criminology, Politics & Social Policy at Ulster where she was also Director of the Institute for Research in Social Sciences (IRiSS) from 2010-16. She is a regular political commentator for the BBC on both television and radio and has recently completed making a new radio programme for BBC World Service on Walls and Peace.
Cathy holds a first class honours degree in politics from Queen’s University, Belfast and an MPhil in Modern Middle East Studies with Arabic from Oxford University before becoming a UK Kennedy Scholar in the J.F.K. School of Government and Public Policy at Harvard University, USA. She also holds a PhD in History and International Affairs from Ulster University. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and the winner of the UK Political Studies Association’s Bernard Crick Award for Outstanding Teaching in 2007.
She has been elected and/or appointed to a number of national boards including the National Executive Committee of the UK’s Political Studies Association (PSA) from 2012-16 and is also a member of the UK’s Kennedy Scholars Association. Currently, Cathy serves on the boards of Matrix, the Northern Ireland Science Industry Panel; Catalyst Inc. (formerly the Northern Ireland Science Park); and the UK government’s advisory body on EU Exit, Universities, Research and Innovation chaired by universities and science minister Sam Gyimah, among other things.

Professor Sir John McCanny CBE FRS FREng Regius Professor Emeritus, Electronics and Computer Engineering, Queen's University Belfast. He was responsible, within Queen’s, for developing the vision that led to the creation of the Northern Ireland Science Park (now Catalyst Inc) and its research flagship The Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology (ECIT). He was ECIT Director from 2000 until 2017. He was also, from 2009 until 2017, the academic PI for the Centre of Secure Information Technology (CSIT) the UK’s Innovation and Knowledge Centre for Cybersecurity. In 2002, the Science Park was a “brownfield site”. Today over 175 high technology companies are located there, employing over 2,800 people. He also successfully co-founded two high technology companies based on his research activities, APT Ltd, later acquired by Qualcomm, and Amphion Semiconductor, later acquired by Conexant.
Sir John is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the IEEE. He is also a member of the Royal Irish Academy. His awards include the IET’s Faraday medal, the Royal Irish Academy’s Cunningham medal, the Irish Times/Royal Dublin Society Boyle medal and an IEEE Millennium medal. He received a CBE in 2002 and a Knighthood in 2017 for services to Higher Education and Economic development.

Paul is currently Chief Executive of the Institute of Physics, the UK’s Professional and Learned Society for Physics.  He is also Chairman of Sense about Science, a charity that campaigns for better reporting of science in the media, and a Visiting Professor in the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the University of Reading.
 
Paul’s first degree is in mathematics and his PhD in theoretical physics, particularly electromagnetic scattering and polarimetry.  His early research work focused on modelling and instrument studies in radio propagation, working with organisations such as British Telecom, the European Space Agency and the Rutherford-Appleton Labs.  He later moved to the Met Office where he spent 14 years in a variety of roles including heading up an international consultancy on hydrometeorology, and the Remote Sensing and Observations Branches.  He then became Programme Director for the Met Office's Development Programmes and latterly the Met Office’s Chief Advisor to Government, providing support to the Government in areas such as climate change policy and the civil contingency programme.
 
Following his time at the Met Office, and before taking over at the Institute of Physics, Paul was the Chief Executive of the Royal Meteorological Society (the Learned and Professional Society for weather and climate).  Whilst in that role he was a member of the Board of the Society for the Environment, the Science Steering Group for the UK’s Joint Weather and Climate Research Programme, and the Advisory Board for e-Research South.  He was also a member of the Standards Quality Council for the qualifications awarding body PAA\VQSET, and for many years has been a reviewer for the Queen’s Anniversary Prizes for Further and Higher Education.
 
Paul is currently the head of delegation for the UK and Ireland to the International Union on Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP).  He has also led the UK delegation to several UN and EU technical committees on meteorology, he has been a member of the Physics Advisor Panel at the University of Wales, one of the Government’s Science and Society Champions, Chairman of one of the UK’s national e-Science projects, and the founding editor of the international journal Atmospheric Science Letters (ASL).  Paul has also been the Interim General Manager for EcoConnect, a joint-venture between the UK and New Zealand Governments to provide environmental services across the globe, and for 3 years, a Non-Executive Director and Chief Scientist of a City company working in risk management.  He was the Chairman of the UK Research Council’s programme on the Flood Risk from Extreme Events (FREE) and for eleven years, until 2009, held a visiting professorship at the University of Salford.  Paul is a past Board member of the Science Council, a federal body representing the profession of science in the UK, and for five years was also a Non-Executive Director and latterly Deputy Chairman of the Board of NHS Berkshire West, one of the UK’s Primary Healthcare Trusts.

Mark has been Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Biology since its inception in 2009 and is a recipient of the Louis Armstrong CEO Award for Outstanding Leadership. 

Mark joined the RSB from the major charity for hearing health and deafness, RNID, where he was the Executive director for Science and Enterprise (2004-2009) leading a major retail operation, service deliver social enterprise and the biomedical and technology research programme. Mark joined RNID after spending three years as the UK’s lead policy official for negotiating and implementing a range of far reaching, EU driven, business related environmental legislation at the Department of Trade and Industry. He previously spent five years in the Diplomatic Service based at the British Embassy in Tokyo as First Secretary (Trade Policy) with responsibility for all UK-Japan bilateral and multilateral trade relations.  He focused, in particular, on the medical, environmental, telecommunications and legal services markets.

Earlier in his career, Mark managed and undertook biosensor research, managed Government LINK programmes, and worked on innovation and S&T and space policy.  He was responsible for setting up the Government’s Faraday Partnership Programme, the £30m environmental body WRAP and worked on the 1993 Science & Technology White Paper. He has a PhD from Cranfield University where he worked on the development of DNA sensors for rapid gene identification and a BSc in Biotechnology from the University of London.

The Royal Society of Biology is a unifying voice for biology, representing over 18,000 individual members and 100 Member Organisations across the life sciences.  Membership includes individuals from all stages of their career and spans all the bioscience disciplines from molecular to whole organisms to ecosystems.

Professor James McLaughlin, a physicist, is currently the Director of the Nanotechnology and Integrated Bioengineering Centre - NIBEC. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and the Irish Academy of Engineering and was recently awarded an OBE for his services to Research and Economic Development in Northern Ireland. He is also a Senior Distinguished Research Fellow and Impact Fellow (2016) of the University.
His present research interests address nanotechnology and it’s application in areas such as point-of-care sensors and cardiology based medical diagnostics. These interests involve the integration of sensors, microfluidics, electronics and photonics. Professor McLaughlin has led key developments in the technology of sensor materials and it’s impact into the connected health industry in areas such as cardiac arrest, heart failure and ubiquitous predictive monitoring. This work has had a strong influence on the Universities commercialisation of IP relating to Connected Health companies, as well as providing the basis for a range of new biomedical sensing platforms.
He has over three hundred publications (H-index 38), numerous successful patents and achieved outstanding paper awards at international conferences, as well as being honoured as an invited keynote speaker at numerous International Conferences.
Professor McLaughlin has attracted over £55m of funding to establish research that has led to the establishment of the ECME; Biodevices Lab, CHIC, NIBEC, NICAM, NanotecNI and BEST. These centres have now led to a vibrant research institute (ERI) with over eighty researchers carrying out both basic and applied research in topics. He has been awarded funding from EPSRC, Wellcome Trust, EU, NSF, DOH, DEL, HEA, Leverhulme Trust, RDA’s and various funding bodies.
In recent years Professor McLaughlin’s over-arching strategy is aimed at developing a strong Connected Health Platform within Ulster University. This work involves linking bioengineering and computing sciences with sensor technology developed within NIBEC and thus encouraging clinically-led research initiatives to benefit the healthcare sector. This work has resulted in the establishment of the highly successful £6m Connected Health Innovation Centre and the Biodevices Laboratory at NIBEC. In 2017 he has set up a £8m Cross Border Medical Engineering Centre – ECME with a drive to create 24 new PhD qualified Leaders in the areas of Cardio-based Medical Engineering. He was team leader for Zensor Xprize, finishing joint 3rd in the world famous Qualcomm Tricorder XPrize Competition.
He is the co-founder and CTO of Intelesens Ltd. (formerly ST&D Ltd.) which specialises in the design and fabrication of wireless vital-signs monitoring systems, as well as incorporating new micro- and nano-scale technologies, thus enabling the miniaturisation and integration of low-cost medical device systems. He is also a Director with, SiSAF (Chief Scientific Officer) and the European Connected Health Campus/Alliance (Chair 2009-). Early work via consultancies and expert roles led to the initial phases of Heartsine and Heartscape. He is a member of the numerous international advisory boards including COST Action; KTN Health Technologi8seAdvisory Board; TechStart; Heart Trust NI
Professor McLaughlin is a Member of the EPSRC Peer Review College and he represents the University on panels such as; RAE 2008 Metallurgy and Materials Assessment Panel; Northern Ireland Industry and Science Panel (MATRIX); NanoIreland Task Force/Chairs the Nanomaterials Panel; US Ireland R&D Partnership; Advisory panel to MSSI; co-chair of the 2014 NI Matrix Life and Health Science Strategy Expert Panel; TechStart 2014 Advisory committee; Innovate KTN Health Technology Advisory Board as well as numerous local organisations.

Caoimhe Archibald MLA was elected as Sinn Féin MLA for East Derry in May 2016 and re-elected in March 2017. She is a graduate of Queens University, Belfast with a BSc in Molecular Biology and PhD by research in Molecular Mycology from the School of Agriculture on a DARD studentship. She also completed a PGDip in Management and Corporate Governance from the University of Ulster.
Prior to being elected she worked as a research scientist for almost 10 years, in applied horticulture and plant pathology research
Caoimhe is former Chair of the Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs committee. She is the current joint Vice Chair of the All Party Group on Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.
She is her party's Spokesperson for Further and Higher Education and also STEM.

Steven has led the Green Party in Northern Ireland since 2011 and was first elected to the Assembly in the same year. His first motion in the Assembly was on fracking.
Born in Dundonald in 1979, he studied philosophy at university and joined the Green Party in 2003 after meeting then-leader John Barry at a protest march against the Iraq invasion.
He worked with the homeless for five years and then became research officer for the Green Party’s first MLA Brian Wilson following his breakthrough success in the 2007 Assembly.
He successfully passed an Assembly motion to introduce a moratorium on fracking and secured unanimous support in the Assembly for his amendment calling for an independent public inquiry into illegal waste disposal in Northern Ireland.
Under Steven, the Green Party became the first party to publish all political donations over £500.
Steven Agnew was the first MLA to bring a motion for equal marriage to the Assembly in 2011 and is involved in bringing forward a Private Members Bill to deliver this long-awaited human right.
He has been a vegetarian for more than 10 years, has been a member of Amnesty International and Friends of the Earth and is passionate about animal welfare issues.