I am a Professor in Sustainable Energy and Energy Systems Modelling at University College Cork, Ireland. My research and lecturing focus on modelling and developing sustainable pathways for the energy system, encompassing energy access, climate change and air pollution, and I engage extensively with policymakers, civil society and academia on those topics. As well as being a lead contributing author to several International Energy Agency World Energy Outlook reports, I have co-authored many peer-reviewed journal articles and several book chapters and other reports. I also write a regular column - “At a Time of Climate Crisis” - for the Irish Times. The Blog section of my website includes all my media articles.
Career profile
2019-present: Professor (since 2022) in Sustainable Energy, University College Cork. You can find out more about my Teaching and Research on this website. I’m affiliated with MaREI, the SFI Centre for Climate, Energy and the Marine and work closely with UCC’s Energy Policy and Modelling Group at UCC’s Environmental Research Institute.
2015-2019: Lead on energy access at the International Energy Agency (IEA), leading the topic of energy development for the World Energy Outlook (WEO), co-authoring the 2017 Energy Access Outlook report.
2012-2015: Postdoctoral researcher in energy systems modelling at the UCL Energy Institute, developing the UK TIMES Model (UKTM) and helping bring about its adoption by the (former) Department for Energy and Climate Change as the central energy systems tool for the UK government. My research also developed the state-of-the-art of the representation of behaviour, demand and populations in energy system models, and integrated indirect GHGs in energy systems analyses.
2009-2012: Ph.D. with the Energy Policy and Modelling Group at University College Cork, under the supervision of Professor Brian O’Gallachoir. Ph.D. thesis: “Transport energy demand: techno-economic modelling and scenarios for Irish climate policy” (download thesis here).