About

Grace joined the Zoology department in September 2021 as a PhD student in the Payne Lab. Having completed her undergraduate degree in Conservation Biology and Ecology at the University of Exeter in 2015, she took a two-year break from academia before going on to finish a master’s in Marine Environmental Management at the University of York in 2018. During her studies, she undertook an internship with Sharks and Rays Australia (SARA) in Cairns, researching sawfish and elasmobranch distributions. She also published her second research project on ‘Stakeholder perceptions of marine plastic waste management in the United Kingdom’. Following this, Grace returned to Australia for another research expedition with SARA before spending a combined six months at Bimini Sharklab where she gained vast fieldwork experience. Due to the COVID pandemic, Grace returned to the United Kingdom in 2020 where she worked for the government producing plans to improve water quality in protected rivers. Determined to return to academia, she left her job to join the TCD department as a full-time PhD student. 

Grace is a Marine Institute (MI) Cullen Scholar, based at their Newport facility in County Mayo. Working collaboratively with the MI and her TCD supervisors Dr Nicholas Payne (primary) and Dr Andrew Jackson (secondary), her work broadly focuses on the ecology of Irish tunas. In particular, Grace studies the movements, foraging behaviour and physiology of several species of tuna, including the Atlantic Bluefin. To do so, she utilises cutting-edge telemetry and bio-logging tools, as well as various modelling techniques. Her research aims to provide an improved understanding of tuna in Irish waters to better conserve these iconic fish.