Education

Imelda Egan - Air pollution scientist

• BA (Mod) Microbiology, Trinity College Dublin (1993)
• Masters in Biological Sciences, Dublin City University (1996)
• Diploma in Environmental Engineering, Trinity College (1999)

Career snapshot

Imelda Egan develops techniques to deal with air pollution. She works for Bord na Mona, an organisation once best known for turf briquettes. Over the past decade, however, Bord na Mona has also built up a range of environmental services, many based on technologies that it has invented and developed commercially.
Imelda is centrally involved in this. Over the last five years, she has been named as co-inventor of two patented air treatment processes. The team she works in, Clean Air Solutions, was shortlisted for the All-Ireland Innovation Awards 2002 and received a commendation.

Bord na Mona exports its services to Britain, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal, as well as working in Ireland. So Imelda’s job involves a lot of travel, although some of it is to such glamorous locations as wastewater treatment or animal rendering plants.
There are two sides to her work: developing new solutions and supporting them in use. This involves:

• Working on new processes to deal with air pollution
• Going on-site to examine air emissions and odorous processes
• Devising solutions through pilot trials
• Putting biological air treatment systems in place
• Supporting the systems in use

It is a demanding and satisfying job, making the world a cleaner and less-smelly place.

What’s the best thing about your job?

“I like the variety of my job, in that I could be on site in France one week and the next be in the office designing a full abatement system for an odour or emission application. The team members in Clean Air Solutions work together. If something comes up, everyone pulls together to get it solved as quickly as possible.”

What do you like least about your job?

“There are times, particularly in winter, when the last thing you want to do is to go outside to a cold site!”

How do you spend a typical day?

“I could be up early and on the road to a site to undertake monitoring. If we have a pilot trial going, we could be visiting that. Or I could be in the office. I spend a lot of time on the phone discussing potential solutions, or arranging someone to monitor a site.”

Are you a science nerd?

“I don’t think so. I like all aspects of my job, including the commercial aspects. My qualifications in science allow me to do a job which is varied and interesting, but I leave it at the gate when I go home.”

Did science give you a buzz at school?

“I did chemistry and physics at school, but wasn’t that good at either really. It wasn’t until I went to college that some of my courses really woke me up to the unbelievable possibilities that science offers in every area of life.”

Want to find out more?

Learn about the wide range of Bord na Mona’s business activities

Find out more about environmental engineering at TCD

(Photo of Imelda Egan used with the kind permission of Bord na Mona)

Microbiologists study of microscopic organisms, principally bacteria, fungi and viruses.

Microbiology is concerned with the interactions between micro-organisms and their hosts and is of immense importance in relation to the environment, agriculture and food, medicine and biotechnology.

What do microbiologists do?

Most people know that microbes are the cause of infectious diseases like ‘flu, or whooping cough but they don’t realise that exploiting microbial activities brings us many benefits. Microbes can make you ill, but they are also the source of the antibiotics that can cure you. Microbiology is a vast subject which overlaps with other life sciences such as genetics, biochemistry, molecular biology and even engineering.

Microbiologists can be found at work in many different place but they are normally based in a laboratory. As there are many different types of microbes there are many different types of microbiologists. Food, pharmaceutical, agrochemical, biotechnological, environmental and pollution control companies all need microbiologists to develop new products, monitor the production of existing ones and solve problems.

Hospitals, public health laboratories, research institutes and pharmaceutical companies offer work in diagnosis, prevention and treatment of illnesses caused by microbes. Agriculture, environmental and health specialists study the role of microbe in plant disease, pest control, nutrition and soil fertility, or monitor and control pollution and devise biological treatment of waste.

Microbiology is of fundamental importance in the environment, with micro-organisms carrying out many of the processes that cycle elements such as carbon, nitrogen and sulphur in the biosphere.

Microbiology is pivotal to solving the challenges we face in the health, food and environmental sectors. Knowledge of microbiology will enable you to improve the quality of our lives in relation to the environment, to fight disease by immunisation and to combat pollution.

Career opportunities

Microbiology is an exciting and rapidly developing area of the life sciences and underpins much of the molecular biology and medical developments that are revolutionising our lives.

It is an integral part of many professions. Recent graduates have been employed in hospital laboratories, the pharmaceutical industry, genome mapping, medical diagnostic development, manufacturing companies, forensic science, education, environmental agencies and journalism.

Graduates in microbiology find employment in pharmaceutical and medical research laboratories, as quality control officers in the preparation of drugs, in food processing and packaging or in public utilities.

Industry employs microbiologists in the manufacture of numerous products, such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, cosmetics, food and drink, either because microoorganisms are used in the process or for reasons of microbiological safety and hygiene.

Many other industrial concerns have requirements for graduates in biological disciplines in such areas as environmental protection, quality control of starting materials, in-process and finished product monitoring. The multidisciplinary nature of microbiologists’ training means that they find employment in a wide variety of positions.

Did you know?

Battling infectious disease

Sixteen million people worldwide die from infectious disease every year. In the developed world, antibiotic resistance amongst bacteria is increasing and ‘new’ micro-organisms, such as the viruses causing HIV and SARS, pose threats on a global scale. All these problems require a broad understanding of microbiology if the opportunities offered to solve them are to be grasped.

Too many bugs

Food-spoiling bugs can munch away on vegetables without causing any damage as long as there aren’t too many of them. But once their population grows to about 100 million bacteria per gram, they release enzymes to get extra nutrients and it is these enzymes that make the vegetables go off.

Download a PDF version of this document (198 KB)