PhD Theses

Below lists recent PhD theses successfully defended by research students supervised by DIAS Astronomy and Astrophysics staff. Publications associated with these theses can be found on our Publications web page.

Modelling and Monitoring Geomagnetic and Geoelectric Fields in Ireland
John Malone Leigh
Supervisor: Prof. Peter Gallagher (DIAS)
External Examiner: Prof. J. Miquel Torta (Universitat Ramon Llull)
Defended: 6 February 2024

Characterising Pulsars with Low-Frequency Software Telescopes
David McKenna
Supervisor: Prof. Peter Gallagher (DIAS), Prof. Evan Keane (TCD)
External Examiner: Prof. Greg Hallinan (Caltech/OVRO)
Defended: 20 November 2023

Study of emission from the bow shocks of runaway massive stars at radio frequencies
Maria Moutzouri
Supervisor: Dr. Jonathan Mackey (DIAS), Prof. Peter Duffy (UCD)
External Examiner: Prof. Paula Benaglia (Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía)
Defended: 29 September 2022

New Methods of Studying Young Stellar Objects Using Radio Interferometry
Anton Feeney Johansson
Supervisor: Prof. Tom Ray (DIAS)
External Examiner: Prof. Derek Ward-Thompson (University of Central Lancashire)
Defended: 26 July 2022

Modelling, development and characterisation of Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors for optical astronomy
Mario De Lucia
Supervisor: Prof. Tom Ray (DIAS)
Defended: 11 July 2022

Developing a Next Generation Readout System for Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors
Eoin Baldwin
Supervisor: Prof. Tom Ray (DIAS)
External Examiner: Prof. Peter de Visser (Delft University of Technology)
Defended: 4 July 2022

Low Frequency Observations of the Solar Corona using LOFAR
Aoife Ryan 
Supervisor: Prof. Peter Gallagher (DIAS)
External Examiner: Dr. Christophe Marqué (Royal Observatory of Belgium)
Defended: 10 March 2022

Multiwavelength Observations of Solar Magnetic Phenomena and Particle Acceleration 
Brendan Clarke
Supervisor: Prof. Peter Gallagher (DIAS)
External Examiner: Prof. Säm Krucker (Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz)
Defended: 9 March 2022

Probing the Solar Corona at High Temporal and Spatial Resolution with the Low Frequency Array
Pearse Murphy
Supervisors: Prof. Peter Gallagher (DIAS), Dr. Eoin Carley (DIAS/TCD)
External Examiner: Prof. Hamish Reid (University College London)
Defended: 17 February 2022

LOFAR observations of shocks in the solar corona
Ciara Maguire
Supervisors: Prof. Peter Gallagher (DIAS), Dr. Eoin Carley (DIAS/TCD)
External Examiner: Prof. Jasmina Magdalenic (Royal Observatory of Belgium)
Defended: 17 December 2021

Predicting thermal radiation from stellar-wind bubbles using multi-dimensional simulations
Samuel Green
Supervisors: Dr. Jonathan Mackey (DIAS), Prof. Peter Duffy (UCD)
External Examiner: Prof. S. Jane Arthur (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México)
Defended: 16 June 2021

From parsec to au scales : zooming-in on the formation of high-mass young stellar objects
Ruben Fedriani
Supervisors: Prof. Tom Ray (DIAS), Dr. Alessio Caratti o Garatti (DIAS/UCD), Dr. Deirdre Coffey (UCD)
External Examiner: Prof. Henrik Beuther (Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie)
Defended: 8 January 2020

The Solar Origins and Earth Impacts of Space Weather
Tadhg Garton
Supervisors: Prof. Peter Gallagher (DIAS), Dr. Sophie Murray (TCD)
External Examiner: Dr. Mike Marsh (Met Office)
Defended: 29 November 2019

A closer look at protoplanetary discs: the inner few au probed with spectroscopy and optical interferometry
Maria Koutoulaki
Supervisors: Prof. Tom Ray (DIAS), Dr. Rebeca Garcia-Lopez (DIAS), Prof. Antonella Natta (DIAS), Dr. Deirdre Coffey (UCD)
External Examiner: Prof. Paula Casselli (Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik)
Defended: 25 November 2019

Quasi-Periodic Pulsations in Solar Flares and the Earth’s Ionosphere
Laura Hayes
Supervisor: Prof. Peter Gallagher (DIAS)
External Examiner: Prof. Ineke De Moortel (University of St Andrews)
Defended: 1 January 2019