Teagasc has announced the appointment of Dr Stephanie Maher as a new permanent biodiversity researcher based in the Teagasc Environment Research Centre, Johnstown Castle, Co Wexford.

Maher is an ecologist and prior to joining Teagasc, she was an IRC fellow at Trinity College Dublin examining the status of wild bees on Irish farmland and their protection in policy.

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

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

Biodiversity challenge

Head of the Teagasc environment, soils and land-use department Dr Karl Richards said: “We are delighted to welcome Stephanie to join the team of researchers in Teagasc who are working in the agri-environment field, addressing the biodiversity challenge facing Ireland.

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

Reversing the emergency

Maher graduated from Trinity College Dublin 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, Maher said: “I’m really looking forward to helping farmers contribute to reversing the biodiversity emergency and enhance the biodiversity on their farms.”