PLANCKS UK & IRELAND

Dr Elizabeth Mathews is an Associate Professor with the School of Inclusive and Special Education at DCU St. Patrick’s Campus, where she specialises in the area of deaf education.  She completed her MA in Deaf Education at Gallaudet University, Washington DC as a recipient of the Dr. Mary L. Thornton Scholarship and a Fulbright Student award.  She completed her PhD with Maynooth University (2011) funded by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs.  Previously, she was the coordinator of the Deaf Education Centre in Cabra, Dublin and is currently the co-chair of the Education Partnership Group. She is the author of Language, Power, and Resistance: Mainstreaming Deaf Education.  She has recently led an innovative initiative to provide, for the first time, access to primary teaching for Deaf ISL users in the Republic of Ireland. Her work on this project saw her shortlisted for a Times Higher Education Widening Participation/Outreach Award in 2023.  Elizabeth is also the project lead for the Irish Sign Language STEM Glossary project – an initiative funded by Science Foundation Ireland to develop a lexicon of terms for scientific vocabulary in Irish Sign Language.

Sinéad Ryan is Professor and Chair of Theoretical High Energy Physics at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland where she is also the University’s Dean and Vice-President for Research.

Her research focus is the numerical simulation of quantum chromodynamics, the theory of the strong nuclear force, in an approach known as lattice QCD. A particular interest of hers is understanding strong exotic matter and the physics of the early universe. She is a founding member of two international collaborations and she has held visiting and honorary positions in the US and in Europe. Precision lattice QCD calculations require state-of-the-art high performance computing resources and Sinéad’s research has been enabled by access to the world’s most powerful supercomputers in the US and in Europe. She has served as Chair of Europe’s PRACE Scientific Steering Committee and Chair of the EuroHPC Infrastructure Advisory Group. Sinéad has campaigned for Irish CERN membership for many years and is the co-spokesperson for the CERN Ireland Users Group.

She is an astrophysicist with special interest in the atmospheres of planets, in astronomy in the far-infrared and sub-millimetre, and in planet and star formation. She carries out observations using numerous observatories and facilities, both ground and space-based, and develops and implement radiative transfer codes to interpret the data and retrieve parameters. Beyond her groundbreaking research, she boasts a remarkable track record of contributions to astrophysical, planetary, and Earth missions, leaving an indelible mark on projects such as Herschel, Rosetta, JUICE, and Sentinel-6. Presently, she is deeply engaged in the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) mission, specifically on the Submillimetre Wave Instrument (SWI).

Since 2005, she has been at the forefront of research at the Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung (Göttingen, Germany). Throughout her career, she has enriched her expertise through research visits, work and collaborations with esteemed institutions such as the Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE) in Garching, Germany, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Garching, Germany, and the European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) in Madrid, Spain. At the Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg (Tautenburg, Germany), she completed her Ph.D. thesis.

Dr Clara Nellist is a particle physicist working on the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. Her research delves into the properties of the top quark, the most massive particle ever discovered, and employing advanced statistical and machine learning techniques to unravel some of the most significant scientific mysteries of our time, such as dark matter. As a science communicator with millions of views on social media, Dr Nellist is dedicated to making physics accessible and engaging. She is also a strong advocate for diversity in science, actively promoting inclusive environments that foster innovation and broaden participation in the field.

Currently Professor of Quantum Physics, University College Cork and Professor of Physics, Oxford University, Oxford.

Davis’ research concentrates upon the fundamental physics of exotic states of electronic, magnetic, atomic and space-time quantum matter.

A specialty is development of innovative instrumentation to allow direct atomic-scale visualization or perception of the quantum many-body phenomena that are characteristic of these states.