Irish Met Society 2011-2012 Committee
Kieran Commins, Committee Member (webmaster)
Kieran graduated with a B.Sc. (Honours) in 1978 and an M.Sc. in 1990 from UCD. He joined the Irish Meteorological Service in 1979, with initial training in Galway and shadow duties in Shannon and CAFO (Dublin). Kieran was assigned to Valentia Observatory in 1981 and became Chief Scientist in 1990. In 1994 he transferred to the Instrumentation and Environmental Monitoring Division in Dublin and was project manager for the Shannon radar installation which was completed in 1996. He moved to the General Forecasting Division in 2000 as Head of Applications Development and is currently responsible for visualisation systems for forecasting and radar meteorology.
Evelyn Cusack, Vice President
Evelyn Cusack is a meteorologist with Met Éireann and is currently Deputy Head of Forecasting. She is passionate about promoting science and the scientific method.
Sinead Duffy, Committee Member (podcaster)
Sinéad has been a member of the Irish Met Society since 2002 and joined Met Éireann in 2004. She has worked as a Meteorological Officer at the military airport in Baldonnel since starting and in 2008 completed a masters degree in Meteorology from UCD.
Dominic Foley, Assistant Treasurer
Dominic is a second year Environmental Science student in Dublin City University (DCU). The weather has fascinated him since he was a child and he was delighted to learn that there is a society in Ireland promoting meteorology to the general public. He became a member in October 2009 and joined the committee in March 2010.
Sarah Gallagher, Treasurer
Sarah joined the Met Society in December 2009 and became part of the committee in March 2011. She graduated with a B.A., B.A.I (Honours) in Engineering from Trinity College Dublin in 2003. She joined Met Éireann in September 2006 and was placed in the Instrumentation and Environmental Monitoring Division in Glasnevin after a short stint in Rosslare. She is currently on a career break from Met Éireann and is studying for her M.Sc. in Meteorology at UCD.
Morgan Geraghty, Committee Member
Morgan became a member of the Met Society in 2006 and part of the committee in 2008. After graduating from NUI Galway with a B.Sc. in Physics and Electronics, he joined Met Éireann in 2005 and was first posted to the weather station in Malin Head. Currently he works in the Dublin Airport office where he is responsible for all Met Éireann equipment at the airport including the Dublin weather radar.
Emily Gleeson, Secretary and Newsletter Editor
Emily took on the role of Secretary of the Irish Met Society in May 2009. She has a B.Sc. in Experimental Physics and Chemistry from NUI Maynooth and a Ph.D. in Submillimeter Astronomy. Following the Ph.D., Emily firstly worked as a postdoctoral researcher and subsequently as a Yield Analysis Engineer in Intel, before joining Met Éireann in September 2006. She worked as a forecaster for almost 2 years before transferring to the Research and Applications Division to work in the field of climate modelling.
Paul Halton, President
Since joining the Irish Meteorological Service in January 1972 Paul Halton has served in many roles in the organisation; observer at Belmullet synoptic station; quality controller of climate data in the Climate and Observations Division; Meteorological officer in the Central Analysis & Forecast Office (CAFO); Meteorological officer in the Computer Division; Senior Meteorological Officer, Systems Analyst and Applications developer in the Computer Division; Principal Meteorological Officer and IT Operations Manager in the IT Division with responsibility for all operational ICT systems; and since February 1999 as Senior Meteorologist and Head of the Information Technology Division in Met Éireann.
Over the past decade he has represented Met Éireann internationally at the Computing Representatives’ meetings at ECMWF and at the various sessions of the WMO Commission for Basic Systems (CBS). He is a member of the ECMWF Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) and he is the focal point for Ireland regarding WMO Codes and Data Representation matters.
In March 2011 he was elected President of IMS.
Dr Aodhagán Roddy, Committee Member, R.I.P.
Following an M.Sc. in Physics at University College Galway, Aodhagán carried out postgraduate work at the University of Edinburgh and postdoctoral research at the Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University. He lectured in the Department of Physics, NUI Galway but has now retired. His main research interests were in the areas of cloud physics (more recently, mesospheric clouds) and atmospheric methane. In recent years he was a member of the Royal Irish Academy's Committee on Climate Change (including a period as chairman), the Academy's Geosciences Committee and the Irish National Committee for the International Year of Planet Earth.
