My name is Emma, I am an Ecologist and Sustainability Consultant working in Ireland, and a PhD researcher on the European Research Council (ERC) funded HARVEST project at Leiden University in the Netherlands, and the University of Colorado Boulder in the USA.
I research wild plant nutrition, ecosystem dynamics, dietary ecology, and the place of plant foods in our evolution as a species. My research interests sit at the intersection of agriculture, sustainability, environmental science, food security, geopolitics, economics, and anthropology. My diverse research foci and wide experience have enabled me to see modern agricultural problems and problems of biodiversity loss in a new light, seeing opportunities for solutions from that deeper time-depth perspective.
I completed my undergraduate at Trinity College Dublin reading Ancient History & Archaeology and Russian. I have an MSc in Palaeobotany/ Environmental Archaeology from University College London, and an MSc in Environmental Sustainability from University College Dublin, alongside my PhD.
I currently work in renewable energy, providing ecological consultation, EIAR coordination, and project management on a range of renewable energy projects in Ireland including wind, solar, and anaerobic digestion. My background includes research and policy roles in the public, private, and Higher Education sectors in the UK and Ireland (working at the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets-Ofgem, DEFRA, and with the Electoral Commission), as Principal Chief Technician of Biological Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, as well as specialist research and scientific work within the UK museums sector (British Museum, Museum of London).
I am a farmer’s daughter from a mixed tillage/beef/dairy farm in rural Ireland. I have been passionate about sustainable food production and farmland biodiversity since childhood. I hope you find some of the information on this website informative, or that it challenges you to research your food and dietary choices a bit deeper, from more perspectives. Importantly, for most of those involved in food production and environmental science, we are all in this together.