CERIS
Resource Management
Academic Staff
Principal Investigator
Dr Pat Naughton is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Engineering & Design at IT Sligo. He is a Chartered Engineer and a specialist in geotechnical and geosynthetic engineering with over 20 years research, development and consultancy experience. Dr Naughton’s research interests focus on geotechnical and geosynthetics engineering, including: the development of geosynthetic reinforced soil integral bridge systems, the characterisation and reuse of excavated soil waste in construction, reliability in design and geotechnical asset management. Before joining IT Sligo Dr Naughton worked as a consultant to leading geosynthetic engineering companies worldwide.
Current research projects:
Physical and numerical modelling of integral bridges supported on reinforced soil abutments.
Design and analyses of Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil – Integral Bridge Systems (GRS-IBS) structures within Eurocode and reliability-based design frameworks.
Optimisation of anchoring system design for floating wind technologies for the metocan and geotechnical conditions at the AMETS testing site.
Principal Investigator
Experienced (25 years) lecturer and researcher of Civil, Environmental and Transport Engineering. PI and supervisor of undergraduate, Masters & PhD research projects.
I have supervised applied research projects in sustainable transport planning, on-site domestic wastewater treatment systems, and the development of sustainable optimisation indicator systems for activated sludge wastewater treatment plants. Findings have been disseminated through presentations, peer-reviewed papers, reports and workshops. Currently, I serve on the board of two national research bodies, CERAI and ITRN (Irish Transport Research Network). I am currently Vice-Chair of ITRN, and have undertaken review, chairing and editorial responsibilities at recent annual conferences.
Current research projects:
Glenn Gordon “Development of Sustainable Optimisation Indicators for Activated Sludge Wastewater Treatment Plants.” PhD Project.
Brendan O’Leary “Taking the Lane – Installation of Urban Cycle Lanes in Ireland During Covid 19.” MEng Research Dissertation.
Principal Investigator
Dr. Salem S. Gharbia is a Lecturer in Water Science and a Principle Investigator at IT Sligo. Water resources, climate change and integrated environmental systems modelling are his main fields of interest with research and industry experience extending over ten years. Dr Gharbia worked as a Post-Doc for three years in the Spatial Dynamics Lab at University College Dublin. As part of Dr. Gharbia’s post-doctoral research at UCD, he worked on two projects: the iSCAPE project (www.iscapeproject.eu) and the project OPERANDUM – H2020-SC5-2016-2017. Dr. Gharbia has over 35 research publications in the last four years, and he secured circa Euro 11M in research funding over the previous 5 years. Dr Gharbia is the leader of the SCORE H2020 project.
Current research projects:
H2020-LC-CLA-2018-2019-2020 RIASCORE (Coordinator, €10M). Smart Control of European Costal Cities
01/2021 – 08/2024 Principal Investigator, “epa Water 2019 – Project 4.Title: WFD Future Scenarios and Management Tools”.
09/2020 – 08/2024 Principal Investigator (leader), “Tracking dynamic time-dependent groundwater vulnerability using satellite scatterometer observations, low-cost sensing technologies and land-use stochastic models”, Connacht Ulster Alliance Bursery, Institute of Technology Sligo, €63,000
Principal Investigator
Having previously worked as an environmental manager in the industrial sector, and as a business development manager in the energy sector, I have been a lecturer and researcher at IT Sligo since 2010. My teaching and research interests are in climate science, renewable energy, waste management, emissions trading, environmental management and industrial sustainability initiatives. Research publications to date have focused on the phycoremediation of industrial waste streams and investigation in to the potential of emissions trading schemes to combat global climate change.
Current research projects:
Investigation in to decarbonisation opportunities for the Irish cement sector: This project is currently
being developed in conjunction with key stakeholders and will feed in to national research in areas such as CCUS (Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage)
and Hydrogen
Lecturer
A Lecturer with over 15 years’ experience in material research, project delivery, and teaching on a range of programmes from level 6 to level 9. David has developed on a large a range of fulltime and online programmes and is currently programme chair for six online programmes delivered by IT Sligo. David is an active researcher in the areas of material science, BIM and Lean Construction Management and has been asked to present his research as a keynote speaker internationally.
Principal Investigator
Dr Tomás O’Flaherty is a lecturer in the Department of Civil Engineering & Construction at IT Sligo. He is a Structural Engineer with over 20 years’ experience in industry and academia, specialising in building and bridge engineering, and sustainable construction solutions, Tomás’s research interests include construction materials, asset management, integral bridges, masonry arch bridges, numerical modelling of materials and structures, and the application of IT and data management to the improvement of construction operations and business processes.
Current research projects:
Optimisation of anchoring system design for floating wind technologies for the metocan and geotechnical conditions at the AMETS testing site.
Lecturer
Mr. Declan Feeney, an environmental scientist, obtained his MSc from the Institute of Technology Sligo in the area of ecological management systems. He has worked with national and multinational industrial organisations on diverse industrial and environmental projects in the role of project manager.
He currently lecturers in Environmental Science and Sustainability in the Department of Environmental Science at the Institute of Technology Sligo, Ireland. He specialises in the area of environmental management, sustainability and ecosystem services.
He is a member of an international education group, ‘Sustainable Futures’, hosting a summer university on sustainability for undergraduate students, which is now in its 10th year. He also convened and co-organised the bi-annual ‘Education with Sustainability’ educators conference at IT Sligo (2018) and Mid Sweden University, Sweden (2020).
Mr. Feeney works within the Centre for Environmental Research, Innovation and Sustainability (CERIS) at IT Sligo researching societal change in the face of environmental challenges associated with climate change. This has includes research into now-casting and future-casting environmental change in water quality associated with Blue Flag beach after short term pollution incidents. He is also active in the IT Sligo sustainable management initiative, Green Campus.
