| RE-CONNECTIONS | DECLAN O’KEEFFE
THOMASINA BARRON
BA 1980, HDipEd 1981,
After graduating, I stayed a further seven years in UCD (PhD in Woodview in tumour biology and post-doctorate research in Merville in in-vitro toxicology) and then returned to the real world! I got a job in the Department of Agriculture as regulatory toxicologist (pesticides) and have been there since. I still fondly remember the good years spent with friends in UCD. I now have a daughter studying law in UCD.
MA 2009
I am a historian, a mountaineer and head of communications in Clongowes Wood College, where I also teach history, edit The Clongownian and am working on the Clongowes Bicentenary Project (2014). I completed an evening arts degree in economics and history in 1980, followed by a HDipEd, after which I was appointed business studies teacher in Clongowes. I returned to the School of History and Archives in 2008, while on career break, to complete an MA in modern Irish history. During my second coming in UCD I was elected auditor of the UCD History Society. As an undergraduate in UCD I joined the Mountaineering Club and discovered a passion for climbing, which has never dimmed. Uniquely I was both auditor of the UCD History Society and captain of the Mountaineering Club (the latter celebrated its 50th birthday last year and I edited the Incomplete History produced to mark the event). I am an experienced alpinist, have served as president of Mountaineering Ireland, the national representative body for walkers and climbers and edit the journal of the Irish Mountaineering and Exploration Historical Society.
BSc 1988, PhD 1998
BRIAN KELLY BE 1987
I recently started Brian Kelly Consulting, an energy consulting company located in Phoenix, Arizona. Previous to this, I was a director at First Solar. I am enjoying the varied challenges and focused work of being an independent operations consultant. It is very satisfying to make improvements in all situations. Best wishes to all the UCD community.
EAMONN O’BRIEN-STRAIN BE 1984
I recently accepted a position at Google, in San Francisco. I was previously employed at Hewlett-Packard Labs as computer science researcher and principal engineer. I will be joining the Google cloud team in their San Francisco office, enabling other companies to build automatically-scalable cloud back-ends on the Google infrastructure.
PAUL ROHAN BComm 1988, MSc 2010
I was formerly head of emerging sectors at AIB Business Banking. In this position I developed AIB’s interaction with the new economy sectors of the indigenous Irish economy and subsequently was appointed head of AIB transaction banking in April 2013, developing and implementing the design of electronic payment and cash management services across AIB.
JOHN MC CORMACK BAgrSc 1986
I have worked abroad since graduation in southern Africa, west Africa, central and eastern Europe. I was formerly a consultant for a variety of bilateral and multilateral organisations, including FAO, World Bank, USAID, and EU. My expertise lies in livestock development, agriculture, food security and rural development. I am based in Northern Virginia and work as senior advisor for USDA/USAID, supporting agriculture sector development in Afghanistan and
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Pakistan. I have fond memories of the Lyons Estate and the Equestrian Club.
1970s PATRICIA O’CONNOR BSc 1970, MSc 1980
I am a professor of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Limerick, having been appointed in 1997 as the first woman there at full professorial level. My sixth book, Higher Education and the Gendered World of Senior Management will be published by Manchester University Press this autumn and is based on research on senior management in Irish universities and part of an eightcountry research project. I am currently principal investigator in the University of Limerick on an EU-funded five-year project on a related area of academic experience, Female Empowerment in Science in Academia.
BEATRICE DORAN BA 1971, DibLib 1972, MA 1998, PhD 2012
I graduated with a PhD from the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School in September 2012. My research was carried out under the direction of Professor Raymond Kinsella. I also hold an MBA, BA and a diploma in library and information studies from UCD. Before I retired I was librarian at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. I was acting university librarian and deputy librarian at University College Cork during the 1970s and 1980s and am a former member of the library staff at the University of Ulster and the RDS. My local history of Donnybrook is to be published by The History Press in October. I have had a keen interest in local history, being a former organiser