Teagasc has appointed Dr. Stephanie Maher as permanent biodiversity researcher, based in the Teagasc Environment Research Centre, Johnstown Castle, Co. Wexford.

Dr. Maher is an ecologist with a broad interest in the ecology and management of agricultural systems for biodiversity.

Prior to joining Teagasc, she was an Irish Research Council fellow at TCD examining the status of wild bees on Irish farmland and their protection in policy.

Dr. Maher has also worked as a postdoctoral researcher on the FARM-ECOS project, a multi-institute, Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine-funded research project, assessing the quantity and quality of biodiversity in Irish farming landscapes.

She has also worked in China at the Kunming Institute of Botany and Zoology.

Dr. Maher graduated from TCD with a Bachelor’s degree in zoology and went on to complete an MSc. in Wildlife Management and Conservation from the University of Reading.

In 2019, she was awarded a PhD from Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, where her research focused on ‘the nesting ecology of ground-nesting solitary bees and also explored the use of citizen science in this context’.

Speaking following her appointment, Dr. Maher said:

Dr. Karl Richards, head of the Teagasc Environment, Soils and Land-Use Department welcomed Dr. Maher saying:

"It’s particularly apt that Stephanie is joining us on World Bee Day and during National Biodiversity week.”