About me

I am a Professor in Economics at the Economics Department at Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Ireland, and a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin (FTCD).  Since Sept 2021, I have been the Bursar and Chief Strategic Developments Officer at Trinity College Dublin.

The Bursar and Chief Strategic Developments Officer holds overall responsibility in the university for critical infrastructural matters such as major capital projects, space allocation, masterplanning and related financial affairs. The Bursar and Chief Strategic Developments Officer reports directly to the Provost (President) of the University. For more information on my role as Bursar, please see www.tcd.ie/bursar.

​As a researcher, my research interests are in behavioural economics and energy and transport economics. I have been awarded over €3.4 million in research funding as principal investigator including as coordinator of the European Commission funded Horizon 2020 project CONSEED and as a partner of the Horizon 2020 project SocialRES. I have supervised 12 PhD students to completion.

​I have been a visiting scholar at the Harvard Environmental Economics Programme and the Harvard Graduate School of Education and I am a non-resident fellow of the Colorado School of Mines.

​I was the inaugural recipient of the European award for Excellence in Teaching in the Social Sciences and Humanities (awarded by the Central European University) and was awarded a Provost Teaching Award in Trinity College Dublin in 2010.

​I was the inaugural Director of Trinity Research in Social Science (TRiSS) a research institute representing over 200 social science academics and 50 postgraduates at TCD.

I hold a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Economics and Mathematics from University College Dublin (UCD).  I was awarded the 1999 Patrick Semple Medal in Economics. I also hold a Masters degree in Quantitative Finance from the Smurfit Graduate Business School and a PhD on the economics of wind energy from University College Dublin, co-supervised by the Economic and Social Research Institute. 

Education

Board positions have included:

  • Independent member of the National Economic and Social Council (NESC)

  • External Advisory board member for the Irish Government Economic Evaluation Service (IGEES)

  • External Advisory board member for the Behavioural Economics Unit at Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI)

  • Steering Committee for the Energy Policy Research Group at the Economics and Social Research Institute (ESRI)

  • I also hold a number of Board positions relating to my role as Bursar and Chief Strategic Developments Officers, for more info see www.tcd.ie/bursar

Board representations