Dashboard – I'm a Scientist 2024/25

Profile

About Me:

I live with my partner and 3 year old son in Carrigaline, Co. Cork. I work in University College Cork, love movies and play badminton in my spare time.
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I love my job and am excited to come to work every day! I have great bosses and colleagues. My son is nearly 4 and is so much fun to play with. I will be getting married to my partner next year.
My pronouns are:

He/him
My Work:

I work with bacteria and viruses, growing them and studying them to see how they live (and how they live with each other!)
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The bacteria and viruses I work with don’t make you sick – they are part of everybody’s ‘microbiome’ – which are the bacteria that live in your intestines and which help you to digest your food (and keep bad bacteria away!)
My Typical Day:

My son usually wakes us up around 7.30 and we all get dressed and go downstairs for breakfast (and maybe a jigsaw or two!). His mom drops him to preschool and I go to work. I work on the computer and also in the lab. I go home at about 4.30.
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During the day I help other people with their experiments and do my own. I also help the researchers in the lab get everything they need to do their work, and give them advice if they are stuck.
What I'd do with the prize money:

I would print some large canvas information posters to go with our giant inflatable gut!

Education:

School: Scoil Mobhi, Glasnevin, Dublin, Gaelscoil Michil Ciosog Ennis, Co. Clare and then Rice College in Ennis.

I went to college in NUI Galway, then did a Masters degree in Trinity College, then a PhD in University College Cork.
Qualifications:

Junior Certificate

Leaving Certificate

Undergraduate degree

Master degree

PhD
Work History:

I first worked with my dad in a warehouse of a company that buys & sells spare aeroplane parts.

I then worked in a bar as a glass collector and bartender.

After that, I worked in a hotel as a luggage porter.

Then I worked in Argos!

My first proper ‘job’ in a lab was my PhD which started in 2012. After that I worked in Eurofins which is a company that tests drugs before they are released to market.
Current Job:

Research Support Officer in UCC.
Employer

Professor Douwe van Sinderen, School of Microbiology, UCC

Brian McDonnell