Public Engagement 
UCD Research

Alex Boyd works as a project manager for UCD Research and everyday she thinks about how researchers and scientists can share their stories with the public. She had the idea for children’s books about Irish research in 2015 when she was on holidays in Kerry with her family. When she got back to UCD she spoke to lots of people about the idea and brought a team together to create the Science Apprentice Series 2016 and 2018.

Alex likes to read lots of different kinds of books and really likes to learn about new things that happen in the world around us. She loves working with teams to come up with new ideas and explore challenges. She says “don’t be afraid to take risks but always wear armbands!”.

Writer

Dr Claire O’Connell works as a science writer and journalist. She talks to scientists and engineers about what they do, and this helps her to write articles for the newspapers and also to write the Science Apprentice books. She used to be a scientist, so she understands what is is like to be a researcher, and she loves finding out what other researchers do.

Claire likes to spend time with her husband and two kids, and the latest addition to the family is Millie the dog, whose favourite thing is to run around with other dogs in the park or on the beach. Claire says: “people often work on interesting things, ask them lots of questions!”

Designer

Martin Beckett is an illustrator and designer, which means he draws things and makes things look good. Although not a scientist, Martin loves science and regularly follows scientific news stories, especially when science fact becomes more incredible than science fiction.

Martin has been a professional illustrator for over 15 years and has created imagery for advertising, product, greetings cards, and children’s books. He has two dogs and two cats who rule his life and inspire his work. Martin says: “drawing is important, everything is designed from the clothes you wear to the books you read and it all starts with a simple drawing.”

Project Coordinator

Áine Flood is the glue that keeps everything together. Clever, creative and controlled she has coordinated the project team over the course of the Science Apprentice project. A cat person of sorts, Áine has most recently worked for the Science Gallery and as the Speaker and Sponsor Manager for the very popular SCI:COM conference series.

She has honed her own science communication skills through events like Bright Club and Famelab but often can be found speaking or organising a science event near you. That is, of course, if she is not out travelling the world or at home smothering her pets with love.

STEM Advisor

An award winning scientist, broadcaster and communicator, Phil has over 14 years experience in creating public engagement programs all over Ireland. Trained as a physicist and engineer, he has worked in research centres for biomedicine, systems biology, climate change, space technology as well as engaging with children from poorer socio-economic areas and special needs.

Phil is happiest when making “amazing” puns and sadly believes that he is hilarious. He is however an expert on what connects with children and hence why he is involved as the STEM advisor for the Science Apprentice. He is honoured to feature in the books and thinks the Wonder Panel have done an amazing job. He says that the only way they could have done better is if they had added more puns.

Education Consultant

Sorcha Browne is a primary school teacher of over 7 years. Her favourite subjects to teach are mathematics, science and P.E. During her years teaching Sorcha noticed that her students learned best when they put their textbooks away and got stuck in to fun and challenging activities. She decided that she would like teach Maths and Science the same way she teaches P.E., and packed her lessons with activities that required her class to get up out of their seats and work together.

Sorcha also realised that the children who continued these activities outside of school began to love science and mathematics as much as she does! She is now completing PhD research into mathematics and science and hopes to spread the news that creativity and fun can power Science and Mathematics.

Dr. Abraham Campbell is an Assistant Professor for University College Dublin(UCD) Ireland, who is teaching for UCD both in Dublin and in Beijing. He is currently in charge of UCD Virtual Reality lab and works with his PhD students to explore how a Virtual hologram of himself could teach in China while his real body stays in Ireland back home with his family :-).

The VR lab team is made up of  Jazheel Luna, Xingyu Pan and  Mengya Zheng who are responsible for the amazing augmented reality application developed for the Science Apprentice series.  Everyone in the lab is a huge science fiction and fantasy fan, and every day we get to take the ideas from our favourite movies and books and turning them into reality.

Image Management

Georgia Stynes is a final year student in UCD, studying Astrophysics and Space Science. Her final year project is to compare different stars and their planets to find which could be best for humans to try and live on! She chooses the images to include on the pages and in the backgrounds of the 2018 Science Apprentice books. She hopes to continue her education by doing a teaching masters as she enjoys working with children and to find new ways of helping people learn.

Georgia lives with her parents, her younger brother and her two dogs, Bert and Inca. Georgia likes to travel and go walking with her dogs. Georgia does debating in college which means she likes to argue with people!