I am a molecular systematist, Head of the Botany Molecular Laboratory and Assistant TCD Herbarium Curator. We are particularly interested in using phylogenetic and population genetic approaches in taxonomy, genetic resource activities and comparative biology. I have specialist knowledge of grasses and forest trees with an additional interest in their fungal endophytic symbionts (endophytes), and a strong interest in genetic resource characterisation and pre-breeding of forage grasses and non-food/bioenergy crops.

I am the curator of Trinity College Dublin herbarium, the largest international herbarium in Ireland and home to approximately half a million specimens. My role as herbarium curator involves caring for these invaluable specimens and ensuring they are as accessible as possible to the global research community. My systematic research focusses on the diversity and distribution of South American plants and in particular the megadiverse genus Begonia, the eighth largest genus of plants. I focus on the systematics of Andean and Brazilian Atlantic Forest species. Through the project BioCarb Atlantica, I am developing techniques to speed up the identification of trees in hyperdiverse rainforests.