ESERO Space Goes To School

Eóin Tuohy is from Kilmacanogue in Co. Wicklow and works in research for human spaceflight. Eóin was working for the European Space Agency at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany. During this time he worked with the Spaceship EAC team studying lunar dust and developing a new device for scanning the eye which is now on the International Space Station. He also worked with the Space Medicine team working with medical devices for spaceflight. Eoin took the skills he learnt during this time and is now the director of EiroSpás Limited, which does space research for ESA.

Danielle works as a Resident Astronomer and Telescope Operator at Blackrock Castle Observatory in Cork, Ireland, and Coordinator of Space Week Ireland. Danielle didn't originally go to school for astronomy or science; she actually has a degree in Spanish and studied several languages. Danielle found astronomy later in life. Danielle is passionate about space and one of the main goals of her work is to communicate space, science, and astronomy to students and the public. She organizes many outreach programs throughout the year to make space accessible to as many people as possible. Her favorite part of her job, however, is getting to use the telescope at the observatory. It's a 16" Schmidt Cassegrain Meade LX200R. Danielle works alongside the on-site Astrophysicist gathering images. The research that's done is mainly on blackholes and exoplanets but they also image other target in space to use as educational resources for schools.

Dr Lisa McNamee is a medical doctor and a co-founder of Space Medicine Ireland. She holds degrees from Trinity College Dublin, UCD and Royal College of Surgeons. She has completed training in space medicine with the European Space Agency, University of Texas Medical Branch and King's College London. She is training to be an aviation medical examiner with the European Society of Aerospace Medicine. She was one of the 2024 winners of the Women's Aerospace Awards. She has received the Anita Mantri PhD award in aerospace medicine. She is currently involved in multiple aerospace medicine research and outreach projects. She has a three year old daughter and they both plan to dress up as astronauts for Halloween.

Brian has been working at the European Space Agency (ESA) since 2009. He's currently the head of a group testing instrument technologies for future science missions at the agency. He leads a group of specialists responsible for testing critical enabling technologies to ensure that they will do their job once launched into space and return the data which will allow a better understanding of our solar system, galaxy and beyond.

Barry Kavanagh is the CEO of O.C.E. Technology, who create software and hardware for use in space and have had numerous contracts with the European Space Agency. Barry was always interested in maths and science subjects at school and did reasonably well in his leaving cert. It took him a few years to settle into an Engineering career after dropping out of Engineering at UCD and Applied Sciences in DTU. He eventually did a FAS course in computer programming and started with a company doing industrial automation work. He did an engineering degree at night, before moving into product design of computer boards, videoconferencing hardware, cryptographic chips, and eventually ended up in a space startup developing software and chips for use in space missions. His work has taken him to many countries, in Europe, Asia and the US, usually trying to promote the latest new product.

Hans Huybrighs is a planetary scientist at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. He studies Jupiter's moons. Three large moons of Jupiter might have underground oceans where life could exist. Hans is involved in the Jupiter ICy moon Explorer (JUICE) that is on its way to Jupiter to study the oceans of the moons.

Originally from Ireland, Aisling Shannon has spent over 15 years at ESA in the Netherlands as a Structures Engineer working on Earth Observation spacecraft development, covering design, test, launcher interface and all of the non technical aspects that go with managing those developments. Aisling is passionate about Space and STEM and would love to encourage more females to those fields.
More recently Aisling has taken on the role of Programme Advisor, where she is involved in independent assessments and reviews of ESA activities.
Aisling has been a UNOOSA Space4Women mentor in 2023 and a Talent Girl mentor in 2022 and 2023.

Caitlin is an accessibility and sound design researcher from Cork, as well as a sound engineer and designer. After getting her undergrad in popular music and music technology, she began her journey into research. She has worked with Blackrock Castle Observatory as their Accessibility Officer, and helped roll out several accessibility improvements in the Observatory. Caitlin’s work focuses primarily on creating accessible experiences for disabled people, whether that be experiences based around space and space museums, heritage sites, or other sites. Caitlin is disabled herself, which has influenced her work, and has had a unique journey into working in the space industry as someone whose background is not a traditional scientific one.

I've had a lifelong passion for astronomy and astrophysics (including a brief window when I was 10 when I was convinced I was going to be an astronaut). However, I had never thought about astrophysics as a career choice until my secondary school physics teacher pointed me towards the Physics and Astrophysics offered at University College Cork. After graduating from this program with a degree in Astrophysics in 2013, I obtained a PhD in Astrophysics from University College Cork and the University of Notre Dame (in the U.S., not France). I followed this up with 4 years of postdoctoral research at the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics in Manchester, before returning to UCC in 2021 to start as a lecturer. My day-to-day job involves preparing lecture notes, analysing complex data sets (mainly using the python coding language), and writing proposals. My science interests revolve around the evolution and structure of the endpoints of stellar evolution: black holes, neutron stars, and white dwarfs. To study these objects, I routinely use world class observing facilities located in the Canary Islands and in Chile.

I'm Ruth and I worked as a reporter on Newstalk and RTE before re-training in science communication. Since 2012, I've worked in a variety of space and science organisations including as a contractor at the European Space Agency in the Netherlands, working in communications and media relations teams. I think the best thing about space is there is a place for everybody - scientists, engineers, lawyers, accountants, designers, writers and librarians. My favourite space-related experiences have been seeing launches, flying weightless on a parabolic flight, and seeing a total solar eclipse.