Lecture Program – Sat 31st Jan

Speakers

Joseph Fenwick:

‘The solar observatories of Brú na Bóinne’

Bio:

Joe Fenwick is the Archaeological Field Officer (Senior Technical Officer) in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Irish Studies, University of Galway. He received BA degree in Archaeology/Greek & Roman Civilizationfrom UCD in 1991 and an MA degree in Archaeology from UCG (NUI Galway/University of Galway) in 1997, the title of his thesis being A study of Rathra: a multivallate enclosure in Co. Roscommon. Prior to joining the Department of Archaeology, University of Galway, firstly as a research and teaching assistant and currently as its Archaeological Field Officer, Joe contributed to a number of major research projects including Knowth Excavations (UCD), The Tara Survey (The Discovery Programme) and the ArchaeoGeophysical Imaging Project (NUI Galway/University of Galway). As Archaeological Field Officer (Senior Technical Officer) he specialises in the area of field research, scientific survey techniques and GIS with a particular interest in the Late Prehistoric royal sites of Rathcroghan, Co. Roscommon and Tara, Co. Meath, in addition to the Brú na Bóinne UNESCO World Heritage Site, Co. Meath. He is currently engaged in experimental archaeological research on the subject of Crafting the Knowth macehead. Joe is a member of the Institute of Archaeologists of Ireland (IAI), the Meath Archaeological and Historical Society (MAHS) and the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (RSAI), serving as its Vice President for Connacht in 2022-23.

Dr Laura Hayes:

‘The Active Sun Up Close: Solar Flares and Space Weather with the Solar Orbiter mission’

Bio:

Dr. Laura A. Hayes is a Royal Society – Research Ireland University Research Fellow at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS), based at Dunsink Observatory. Her research centers on high-energy processes in the solar atmosphere, particularly solar flares and their role in driving space weather effects throughout the heliosphere. She specialises in flare diagnostics using X-ray and EUV observations, and is an expert in the study of quasi-periodic pulsations (QPPs), energetic particle acceleration, and the ionospheric signatures of solar flare events. Laura earned her PhD in 2018 from Trinity College Dublin (TCD), with her doctoral work jointly conducted at TCD and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. She subsequently held a NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) Fellowship at GSFC, followed by an ESA Research Fellowship at the European Space Agency’s ESTEC facility in the Netherlands. She joined DIAS in 2024 to begin her Royal Society – Research Ireland Fellowship and to establish her research group. She is Co-Investigator for the Solar Orbiter/STIX instrument and actively involved in the Solar Orbiter science teams and working groups and contributes to international efforts in coordinated solar flare observation campaigns. Beyond research, she plays a leadership role in heliophysics software development and community infrastructure through the SunPy project.

      Michael O Connell:

“2026 Total Solar Eclipse”

Bio:

Michael is an amateur astronomer residing in Co. Kildare. Michael is a former chairperson of the Irish Federation of Astronomical Societies (IFAS) and Midlands Astronomy Club (MAC). Aside from chasing eclipses, Michael is also an active solar observer, member of the BAA, and operates 3 meteor cameras from his home as part of the Global Meteor Network (GMN). Michael has previously presented to the Galway Astrofest on the topics of ‘Building a 16″ Dobsonian Telescope’ and ‘Observing the Southern Skies’.

Dr Matt Redman:

‘The Future of the Sun’

Bio:

Dr Matt Redman completed his doctoral studies under Professor John Dyson at the University of Manchester, following him to the University of Leeds. A new model for one of the earliest manifestations of the birth of the most massive stars was developed. Upon graduation he moved back to the Jodrell Bank Observatory at the University of Manchester as a postdoctoral fellow with Professor John Meaburn. Using instruments installed on the Anglo- Australian Telescope, led to the discovery of highly explosive outbursts in objects known as Planetary Nebula, which had previously been thought to evolve in a steady fashion. This was followed by the discovery of evidence for sequential, nested supernova explosions in two peculiar objects, the Pencil Nebula and the Honeycomb Nebula. He worked with Professor Jonathan Rawlings, at University College London researching the formation of sun-like stars and in collaboration with Dr Eric Keto in Harvard.  An IRCSET postdoctoral fellowship at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies was followed by a faculty appointment at NUIG in 2004. His research programmes now bring together the themes of star formation and star destruction and I have studied how low mass star formation can proceed in the vicinity of violent massive stars. A recently new research theme, inspired by the widespread discovery of exoplanets, is to investigate the effects of the destruction of planets on the evolution of sun-like stars as they evolve to form (coincidentally, and confusingly misnamed!) planetary nebulae.