Our graduate researchers are an essential part of the School community and play a key role in supporting undergraduate students, hosting visiting staff, participating in seminars and a range of other School events. We pride ourselves on providing a high-quality learning and research environment to our graduate researchers and supporting intercultural awareness and diversity in our graduate community. Our recent and current graduate students have joined us from UCD and other Irish institutions, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Italy. They have research interests that span the breadth of the subject. Please find out more about our graduate researchers and their interests.
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Oluwafemi Benjamin ObeBenjamin joined UCD in 2021 to pursue a PhD in urban climate. His research is supervised by Assoc. Prof. Tobi Morakinyo and partially funded by the UCD School of Geography. His research interests cut across the intersection of cities, the environment and climate. The study focuses on cities in developing countries with fast paced urbanisation and uncoordinated urban development. The analysis will be driven by the availabilty of high resolution satellite data, as well as transferable state of the art mesoscale and microscale models to investigate the linkages between urban form and surface meteorology. This study is important to better understand weather variability in a complex and highly heterogeneous urban landscape to better inform policymakers in their pursuit of a resilient and smart city. Benjamin previously finished his Masters in Meteorology and Climate Science from the Federal University of Technology Akure, Nigeria. He has since been working with the Nigerian Meteorological Agency as a meteorologist. |
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Kate de SmethKate is an Irish Research Council Postgraduate Scholar, having been awarded funding under the Enterprise Partnership Scheme in partnership with the Office of Public Works. Under the supervision of Prof. Conor Murphy (ICARUS, Maynooth) and Dr Jonathan Turner (UCD Geography), Kate aims to contribute a baseline hydrological understanding of Irish river behaviour for discussions around river management practices, climate change and flood risk management. Her research employs historical data rescue and time series analysis to characterise the flow regimes of arterially drained rivers in Ireland from the 1940s to the present day, followed by hydrological modelling to investigate the relative role of climate and anthropogenic factors in driving river flow change. Previously Kate trained as a hydrologist at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, before working in the UK private sector as a Principal Geomorphologist specialising in river restoration design and assessment of river condition and potential development impacts under the Water Framework Directive. |
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Korteh Akpey KodjoKorteh studied spatial planning in the Royal Institute of Technology, KTH, Stockholm, and GIS and Remote Sensing at Maynooth University and has worked with the World Bank in Sudan and ICON Group at the Department of Agriculture, Ireland. He recently joined UCD for his doctoral studies under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Brad Garrett. His interest is in inequalities and spatial justice. His investigation focuses on how government policies impact low-income earners, notably in the Dublin Docklands and the Ballymun areas of Dublin. He also investigates the role of community organisations in these areas. His work seeks to provide alternative ways of understanding inequality and bridge the inequality gap in Dublin. |
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Nicholas O'NeillNick is an Irish Research Council Postgraduate Scholar and began his PhD research at UCD in September 2020 under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Julien Mercille. His research examines the role of business in the development of social policy, with a particular focus on private for-profit providers of health and social care. Prior to beginning his PhD, Nick worked as an assistant researcher for the social policy think-tank TASC (Think-tank for Action on Social Change). He received an MA in Geopolitics and the Global Economy from UCD in 2019 and has also completed a BA in History & Political Geography at UCD. |
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Sarah FoudySarah is a PhD candidate on the Beyond Opposition research project, under the supervision of Professor Kath Browne. Her research explores the affect that changes in the socio-legal landscape surrounding sexualities and gender in Ireland, the UK and Canada have had on those who, to some degree, do not support these changes. Sarah comes from a socio-legal academic background, having completed an LL.B in Law and an MA in Gender Studies. |
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Virgina on ResearchGate |
Virginia MorejonThe Irish Marine Institute has awarded Virginia a Cullen Scholarship to pursue a PhD hosted at UCD School of Geography. Her research addresses the impacts or cumulative effects of multiple human activities in the marine environment. Her research will be supervised by UCD Associate Professor Ainhoa González Del Campo and Elizabeth Tray from the Marine Institute. As a team, they hope to better understand the principal human-environment interactions in Irish waters to inform evidence-based marine spatial planning and decision-making. virginia.morejon@ucdconnect.ie |
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Zeting LiZeting is research assistant surpervised by Assoc. Prof. Gerald Mills. Previously, he got his M.Sc in UCD in 2021. His research focuses on the urban climate and urban trees. His research interest is in the application of deep learning, remote sensing, and GIS technologies in evaluation of urban trees. |
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Zikang JiZikang joined UCD in 2021 to pursue a PhD in Geography supervised by Assoc. Prof. Niamh Moore-Cherry. Before this, Zikang got his Master's degree in GIS in the University of Leeds in 2019. Zikang is proficient in population-based data analysis and visualisation. During the Masters, he studied the importance of the traditional British market to local vulnerable groups from the perspective of accessibility, both materially and emotionally. When the pandemic began, his research interests shifted to population movement caused by the epidemic, key words: counterurbanisation and polycentric cities. This will be the research topic for his PhD. If you are also interested in related topics, he would be more than happy to discuss with you. Zikang is also passionate about wildlife and the impact of human activities on their habitat e.g. British wild animals (such as gray squirrels). |
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Emily RickEmily is a Teagasc Walsh Scholar who began her PhD in September 2022. She is under the supervision of Dr. Jonathan Turner (UCD School of Geography) and Dr. Per-Erik Mellander (Teagasc), with additional co-supervision from Dr. Fiachra O’Loughlin (UCD School of Civil Engineering) and Dr. Daniel Hawtree (Teagasc). Her PhD research investigates hydromorphology in intensively farmed agricultural catchments as part of the multi-disciplinary Teagasc Agricultural Catchments Programme (ACP). The project will determine geomorphological sensitivity under climate change, and provide a predictive model of hydromorphological change in 2 catchments. Previously Emily earned a Masters of Science (MSc) in Coastal and Marine Processes, Policy and Practice from the University of Galway. Her Master's research involved a critical assessment of the Irish planning system and questioned the role of local authorities in delivering climate change adaptation in coastal areas. She earned a Bachelor of Environmental Science (B.Sc.(Env.)) with a focus on Natural Resource Management and fluvial geomorphology from the University of Guelph, Canada. She previously worked as a consultant Geomorphologist for 6 years in the private sector in Ireland and Canada, providing geomorphology studies to inform flood infrastructure projects and development management, as well as delivering training in the field of geomorphology and nature-based solutions (NBS). |
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Rachel BayerRachel began her PhD research at UCD in January 2023, under the supervision of Professor Kath Browne and Professor Alun Jones. Centered in the areas of queer and sexualities geographies, Rachel’s research focuses on asexual (ace) geographies - exploring ‘ace spaces’ and ace people’s experiences of space in Ireland. In looking at the spatialities of ace people’s everyday lives, Rachel is also interested in the transformative potentials that an asexual lens might offer to our collective understandings of space, sexuality, and identity. Prior to this, Rachel earned an MSc in Critical Geographies from UCD in 2022, completing a Master’s thesis that explored ace people’s experiences of finding, creating, and using ace spaces in Ireland. In addition, Rachel also holds a BA in Linguistics from the University of Michigan. |
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Recent Graduates
Radicalising homeland: agency, temporality and spatiality in Kurdish Freedom Movement's representations of Kurdistan.È
| Name | Thesis title | Supervisor |
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| Saeed Alharbi |
Assessment of exposure to flash flooding in an arid environment: Case study of Jeddah City neighbourhood Abruq Ar Rughamah, Saudi Arabia |
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| Jack McCarthy |
Desire, anticipation, and assemblage: an analysis of collaborative agri-environmental governance on collectively owned farmland in Ireland |
Dr. Christine Bonnin and Dr. David Meredith (Teagasc) |
| Niall Buckley |
Modelling Dublin: A workflow for the application of an Urban Building Energy Model to evaluate carbon mitigation strategies at neighbourhood scales |
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| Colm Casserly |
Investigating the impact of low-head dams on sediment transport dynamics and connectivity in gravel-cobble streams |
Dr Jonathan Turner and John O'Sullivan (Civil Engineering) |
| Albert Orta Mascaró |
Cities, networks, and region-building: exploring intermunicipal connections and strategies in the north-western Mediterranean |
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| Francesco Ventura |
Radicalising homeland: agency, temporality and spatiality in Kurdish Freedom Movement's representations of Kurdistan. |
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| Andrew McCartan |
Geographies of LGBTQ+ Activism: Ireland After Marriage Equality |
Prof Kath Browne and Dr Alexander Kondakov |