IMSS Committee 2026
I am a Principal Research Officer in the Department of Food Quality and Sensory Science at the Teagasc Food Research Centre, Moorepark, Cork, and an Adjunct Professor in the School of Food and Nutritional Science at University College Cork, and the School of Food and Environmental Health, Technical University of Dublin. The focus of my research focuses on flavour chemistry with an emphasis on volatile aromatic compounds in foods and beverages. I am a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry, an affiliate member of the British Society of Flavourists, and currently lead a Standing Committee on Analytical Methods within the International Dairy Federation. I have published 130 peer reviewed research articles and 16 book chapters and has supervised 16 post graduate students.
Dr. Kieran Kilcawley
Adjunct Professor at School of Food and Nutritional Sciences
I am delighted to take over the Chair of the IMSS Committee for 2026. I would like to thank all the committee members for accepting my nomination and would especially like to thank the outgoing chair, Dr John Bradley for the fantastic job he has done over the previous two years. I hope that community of mass spectrometers on the island continue to support the IMSS and I will endeavour to do my upmost with the support of my Vice Chair Dr Eileen Ryan to make the annual conference in May 2026 a success.
IMSS Chair
2026
Dr. Eileen Ryan
MSCA Fellow
UCC (Vice Chair)
Dr. Ryan obtained her PhD in Nutritional Sciences from UCC. Returning from Australia, after over ten years in research positions in both Monash University and the University of Melbourne, she is now an expert in Mass Spectrometry (MS) applications for the detection, identification, and characterisation of small drug molecules, metabolites (metabolomics) and lipids (lipidomics).
She has gained considerable experience in problem solving, project management and "big data" analyses. For the latter, she is learning python and "R" to further improve her data analyses skills.
Dr. Roisin O'Flaherty
Maynooth University (Sponsorship)
Assistant Professor with a 10+ years relevant experience in glycoscience and biopharmaceutical design and characterisation. Interested in probing the role of protein glycosylation in our immune system as a tool to understand diseases such as cancer or arthritis.
Conor Noone B.Sc
Chemist II
The State Laboratory
(Finance & Tickets)
Conor graduated from Dublin institute of technology in 2015 with a Bsc. In Forensic and Environmental Chemistry. Since 2016 Conor has worked at the national reference laboratory for persistent organic pollutants in food and animal feed, located at the State Laboratory Backweston.
Conors' area of expertise is in the use and method development of high resolution Mass Spectrometry, specifically high resolution double focusing magnetic sector mass spectrometers. He joined the IMSS in 2018, and has acted as treasurer since.
Dr. Mike Kinsella
Lecturer
SETU
Dr Kinsella is currently project manager of the HIPODERM EU Fp7 project, a collaborative research project investigation the delivery of drugs into the through the human skin barrier for treatment of conditions such as skin cancer. He is also co-PI on an Enterprise Ireland Innovation Partnership project investigating novel extraction techniques for isolation of high value components from processing streams. To date Dr. Kinsella has secured over €280,000 in research funding and has published in the area of organic metal-free catalysts and applications of LCMS in biological and clinical applications.
Prof. Lorraine Brennan
School of Agriculture and Food Science, UCD
Professor Lorraine Brennan (UCD) leads a research team at the forefront of nutrition and metabolomics research. She is involved in a number of European consortia such as FoodBall and SusFood. Professor Brennan was a member of the EU Food2030 expert group and is currently Editor in Chief of Nutrition and Metabolism and Associate Editor for the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. She has published over 170 research articles. She has an active Outreach programme engaging with the local community in areas relating to Food and Nutrition.
Dr. Susan Joyce
APC Microbiome Institute UCC
Dr. Susan Joyce is a lecturer in Biochemistry at UCC and Head of Mass Spectrometry at the APC Faculty, UCC. Her research focuses on host microbe interactions relevant to the gut. Mass spectrometry plays an essential role in her research activities, allowing her to address diverse topics such as antibiotic characterization, cell signalling, bacterial statin utilization, and the role of steroids in health and disease. Her team specializes in developing MS based solutions to understanding microbial/metabolic interrelated processes. She has developed system biology approaches for analysis of large "omics" datasets relating to the microbiome/metabolite/host setting.
Prof. Stephen Pennington
President of Human Proteome Organization
Steve is a Professor of Proteomics in the Conway Institute (UCD). His team's current research and development efforts are focused on bringing protein biomarkers to clinical utility and value. He is currently President of HUPO and following the cancellation of the HUPO 2020 Congress in Stockholm, he chaired a virtual organising committee to produce and deliver a highly successful HUPO2020 Connect virtual Congress that had 1,000 delegates.
Dr. Angela Mc Ardle
University of Galway
(Social Media)
Angie has over 10 years of experience in translational proteomics. She received her PhD from UCD, where she applied discovery-to-targeted MS to identify diagnostic biomarkers for arthritis. Since then, she has specialized in high-resolution MS, focusing on the development of high-throughput proteomic discovery workflows. Now based in Galway she is working as a senior technical officer in the MS core facility.
Dr. Patrick Ward
Applications Manager
Alltech
Experienced Application Chemist with a demonstrated history of working in the biotechnology industry. Patrick is skilled in Method Development, LCMS, GCMS, ICP-MS, HPLC, in addition to Method Validation. Patrick is a strong research professional with a PhD via the Employment Based Postgraduate Programme scholarship funded by the Irish Research Council. He currently manages a high throughput analytical lab while incorporating project management techniques.
Vincent O'Brien
Analytical Chemist
Pfizer
(Mentorship & Training)
Vincent is a graduate of the MSc in Analytical Chemistry in UCC where he carried out his master’s research in conjunction with TU Delft and the Netherlands Forensic Institute. Subsequently he worked in the Wageningen Food Safety Institute as part of the Horizon 2020 project FoodSmartphone where he investigated the coupling of lateral flow screening assays to Orbitrap systems for confirmatory analysis. After returning to Ireland, he took up a position in the Analytical Solutions Group in Henkel where he spent 5 years using LCMS to support R&D efforts and solve customer queries. His most recent move is to Pfizer in the Process Development Centre based in Ringaskiddy where he supports second generation drug development. Vincent has a wealth of experience on high resolution mass spectrometry, especially ToF based systems, and is more recently focusing on QQQ and online LCMS analysis.
Dr. John Bradley
Principal Biochemist, National Drug Treatment Centre
John is the Principal Biochemist in the National Drug Treatment Centre, Dublin. The NDTC is designed to deliver a wide variety of medical, psychological, and scientific support to those affected by addiction. It takes a progressive health led approach to treatment. The NDTC laboratory performs routine screening and identification of drugs of abuse in Urine using a mix of chemical analysis, and LC Mass Spectrometry.
The laboratory is also involved in the identification of unknown substances submitted to our service from a variety of sources, including concerned citizens, prison services, mental health support services and individuals concerned about their drug use. The NDTC is part of a European wide network of forensic and toxicology based laboratories, all working together to identify new psychoactive substances and reduce harms associated with drug use.
As of 2021, John became assistant lecturer in Technological University Dublin, where he teaches part of the 4th year undergraduate program on forensic toxicology. He is an active member of the IMSS and helps to promote the event and provide input into it's direction.
Paula Meleady
Associate Professor
DCU
Paula has had an impactful journey in biotechnology, dedicating her career to advancing research and innovation. After completing her Ph.D. at Dublin City University (DCU), Paula progressed from a post-doctoral researcher to her current role as Associate Professor at DCU.
Her career includes roles such as Senior Research Scientist, Program Leader at the Proteomics Core Facility, and Associate Director of the National Institute for Cellular Biotechnology (NICB). Paula’s research interests are in the area of Biopharmaceutical Research of mammalian cells where she uses proteomics to gain insights to improving productivity of biopharmaceuticals. She also has research interests in clinical proteomics, specifically in pancreatic cancer and lung cancer.