Ever wonder what it’s like to raise jellyfish in an aquarium, or to spend nights photographing distant galaxies under the night skies of southeast Spain?

Our latest nine Science Ambassadors talk about their careers so far, what they studied in school and college, and what their everyday work is like – from what’s cool to what’s not so cool.

They include an astrophotographer, a geology researcher, a science communicator with a show in the Dublin Fringe Festival, an IT journalist, a curriculum development manager, a marine biologist and PhD students in quantum chemistry and plasma physics.

The Science Ambassadors range from newly qualified graduates to well established researchers. They all have a passion for science, and explain what it’s really like working in their particular areas of research and innovation.

Niamh Shaw – scientist, actor and communicator:

“I’m thrilled to be heading to CERN to meet scientists in quantum physics and see the Large Hadron Collider. The trip is part of a one-woman show I am currently writing which aims to explain the big science philosophies to the general public in a fun and accessible way.”

James M. Dailey – postdoctorate researcher in the Tyndall Institute’s Photonic Systems Group:

“Even from a young age I knew I wanted to work as a scientist… When I took some optics/photonics classes I was immediately fascinated by how much information you could transmit down a tiny optical fibre using light.”

Tom O’Donoghue – astrophotographer:

“An astronomy club in secondary school kickstarted my love for the subject… Taking images of objects in space is cool in itself. When you have an image that you are happy with, it’s very difficult to stop staring at it. It’s a very cool job to have, and with so many objects in the night sky I won’t run out of pictures to take.”

Catherine Jordan – senior aquarist, Galway Atlantaquarium:

“Raising the jellyfish is definitely a challenge but the result is very satisfying – seeing them fully grown and healthy.”

Check out the MyScienceCareer.ie website for interviews with our nine new Science Ambassadors.

The report, by the Institute of Physics in Ireland, highlights how physics graduates have stimulating and well-paid careers in a wide range of sectors.

Read more about the report on MyScienceCareer.ie

Biochemist Maeve O'Neill

Ever thought about a career in biology or chemistry – or one of the growing areas of science where the two subjects overlap, such as biochemistry or chemical biology?

Our latest interviews with young Science Ambassadors include biochemist Maeve O’Neill and chemical biologist Daniela Quaglia.

The Science Ambassadors are people who have a passion for science and technology. They describe what they studied at school and university, their current jobs, what it’s like working in their particular areas of research and innovation – and what a typical day is really like.

They also talk about what’s cool about their work, and some practical steps you can take do if you are considering a career in their particular scientific areas.

“What’s cool? Knowing that some of the science on programmes like ‘CSI’ is not possible. I love helping others overcome a problem and working out the solution as a team.”

- Maeve O’Neill, biochemist

Chemical biologist Daniela Quaglia

“When your experiment works it’s the coolest thing in the world. To be able to obtain results and that these results are reproducible makes you feel that you are doing the right thing, building something important, no matter how small. To see somebody else learning from you (e.g. an undergrad) is the most rewarding feeling of all.”

- Daniela Quaglia, chemical biologist

Check out the Science Ambassadors section of our MyScienceCareer.ie website for interviews with Maeve, Daniela and other researchers.

Read more about a career in biochemistry

Check out the Science Ambassadors section of our MyScienceCareer.ie website: the Science Ambassadors are people who have a passion for science and technology, and who explain what it’s really like working in their particular areas of research and innovation.

Our latest interviews with Science Ambassadors include these folks…

The software developer

As Maurice Coyle explains, he didn’t arrive in college with any kind of knowledge of computers or desire to do computer science.

“In fact, on my first day in a computer practical I couldn’t figure out how to log onto my computer because the slip of paper said ‘login’ on it, while the computer screen said ‘user name’! I asked the girl sitting beside me if she knew what to do, she didn’t and we ended up asking the demonstrator.

“The two of us went on to do PhDs in computer science – she’s now a lecturer in an English university and I’m the founder of a social web search company.” Maurice is now head of product development at Heystaks.com.

Read the interview with  Maurice Coyle.

The quality assurance engineer

David Cahill “had no idea what I wanted to do after secondary school”, then a summer job at a small technology firm in Cork led to a more full-time role. “Now I test software and hardware, suggest ways to improve our products and train staff and customers on new features.” Read the interview with David Cahill

The computer scientist

James McDermott is a researcher in evolutionary computation at the legendary MIT in Boston. He talks about his career milestones, what he studied at school and college, what’s cool about his job, and a typical working day. Read the interview with James McDermott.

The Director General of Engineers Ireland, John Power, gave the figures in advance of the “Smart Futures” seminar on Thursday, 19 May, which will explore the wealth of jobs currently available in the technology sector and the career options available for students and jobseekers.

Read more about the Smart Futures seminar

The event is aimed at students, jobseekers and those looking to upskill and reskill in this rapidly growing sector.

The sessions will include experts from Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Fujitsu Ireland and Intel. Admission is free but registration is required. Find out more in our events section.

French born and Dublin bred, Liz studied science at Trinity College Dublin, graduating with a degree in biochemistry.

Liz Bonnin, science graduate and broadcaster

After college she was lead singer with the shortlived Irish girl group Chill. They toured the UK with the Smash Hits Roadshow but broke up before recording.

“I had an absolute ball,” she says of it now. “We got to tour the country and I love to sing, but the fact it didn’t quite work out is a blessing because I am now lucky enough to be doing my dream job. This is really where I belong, everything happens for a reason.”

Her first TV presenting roles were on “The Den” and “Off the Rails” for RTÉ. After that she also worked on a very wide range of shows, including:

• “RI:SE”, Channel 4′s breakfast show
• “Top of the Pops” on BBC 1
• “Brat Camp Unseen” on E4
• “Derek Acorah’s Ghost Towns” on Living TV
• A “Da Vinci Code” special for ITV

Most of all, though, she is now an old hand at science shows and wildlife documentaries. For RTÉ these have included  ”Wild Trails” and “Science Friction”, the station’s four-part series covering topics such as nuclear power and stem cell research.

For the BBC she has presented specials on the winter weather, as well as “Springwatch” and “Autumnwatch”, and she also featured in Professor Brian Cox’s “Stargazing Live” astronomy series, as well as “Museum of Life”, about the Natural History Museum in London.

Bang Goes the Theory

Since July 2009 Liz has been part of the team on “Bang Goes the Theory”, which is co-produced by the BBC and the Open University. The show has around four million viewers per episode, and is just finishing its fourth series this week.

“I’m now combining presenting, which is what I love, with my passion which happens to be science, so I still have to pinch myself,” she says.

Masters Degree

Despite the busy TV career, Liz also managed to take a postgraduate science degree, during which she tracked tigers in Nepal.

In 2008 she graduated with distinction with a Masters in Wild Animal Biology from the Zoological Society of London and the Royal Veterinary College. The same year she was also the MC for some of our Science Week lectures in Dublin.

“I swore blind after I did my undergrad that I’d never go back to academia, and then I went back and did my Masters which was really hard but really rewarding. After that one I swore blind, ‘that’s it, that’s that me done’ – and would you believe it I’m actually thinking about a PhD now.”

She continues to work on big cat conservation programmes at the Zoological Society of London, spending a lot of time helping snow leopards and tigers.

Studying science

“I think the fact that there are people who shy away from science is a shame,” Liz says. “Some people have more of a liking to it than others, but the thing about is we all underestimate how big a role science has to play in the world around us.

“But I think that is our job on the show – to communicate that.”

And what would she do if she wasn’t a TV presenter?

“I’d be in India working on tiger conservation,” she says. “I just think that it’s really important to make a difference while we are here, and the fact that tigers are in so much trouble because of us is unacceptable to me.”

Learn more

Follow Liz and the rest of the “Bang Goes the Theory” team on Twitter @bbcbang

Read about careers in biochemistry and careers in biology on MyScienceCareer.ie

Visit the BBC’s “Bang Goes the Theory” website

The final episode of the current series is on BBC 1 Northern Ireland on Friday, 6 May at 8.30pm

The “Futurize Me” online quiz is on the website of the STEM Academy at Queen’s University Belfast. As the site explains, the problem with career choices is not knowing what kind of job is right for you.

“As it turns out, every instance in our entire lives will have helped build up a profile of what kind of career is right for us.

“Now’s the time to find out what your STEM profile is and what kind of person you can become…”

The quiz asks you various questions to build up your profile, such as your favourite games, TV shows and films, or what you’d bring to a desert island. Then it calculates which STEM career is the nearest match to your profile.

Learn more

Take the “Futurize Me” quiz

Being invited to speak at the International Conference on High Energy Physics in Paris is a great honour, and one of the main speakers on the opening day was Irish physicist Ronan McNulty. His team at University College Dublin have played an important role in the LHC project.

Experiment at CERN

The Large Hadron Collider under construction at CERN

For the past six months the LHC at Cern, on the Franco–Swiss border, has been smashing protons together at energies 100,000 times hotter than the centre of the sun. So this is the first conference to discuss the initial results from the experiment.

This afternoon Dr McNulty gave his paper explaining how his team have “rediscovered” two important particles, the Z boson and the W boson.

These were originally found by physicists in the mid-1980s, but their rediscovery within the data shows that various experiments attached to the LHC are running properly and delivering correct results.

Eventually tens of thousands of computers will be connected together for the scientists to process and analyse the results from CERN.

Team member James Keaveney, a PhD student at UCD, was searching through the data when he spotted the signatures of the Z boson and the W boson.

James and two other postgraduate students from the UCD team, Dermot Moran and Stephen Farry, also visited CERN to see the first data being produced.

One detector at CERN, called the LHCb, has significant Irish involvement. Parts of the device were built at UCD before being installed at CERN.

Higgs boson

The Irish team’s work will help scientists at the LHC as they intensify their hunt for the much more elusive Higgs boson particle.

The Higgs boson has been described as the missing piece that would complete the “Standard Model” describing all the sub-atomic particles and their interactions with one another.

Learn more

Read a quick overview of careers in physics

Find out how Science Ambassador Cormac O’Raifeartaigh became interested in physics and what he studied

View Dr McNulty’s PowerPoint presentation to the conference (you may need a degree in physics to understand it though)

It will be the largest single investment in research made in the country. Some €360 million will be going into the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions.

The highest allocation – of more than €75 million – will go towards a biomedical sciences development at Trinity College Dublin.

Other major investments include:

• A €53 million science centre at University College Dublin
• A €19 million biosciences project at University College Cork
• A €16 million nano-bioanalytical research facility at Dublin City University
• €12 million for a national centre for applied materials research at the University of Limerick
• €4.6 million for ICT infrastructure development at NUI Maynooth

Who funds it?

The scheme was established in 1998, when the Irish-American businessman and philanthropist Chuck Feeney offered to put up IR£75 million (€95.25 million) for research if the government would match it.

Mr Feeney made his fortune in the duty-free shopping business. Over the years he has donated around $1 billion to education in Ireland, mostly to third-level institutions.

The Higher Education Authority manages the programme, and major projects are being funded in fields ranging from electricity, environmental health and earth systems to innovation, economic forecasting and the creative industries.

Learn more

Visit MyScienceCareer.ie for more information about career opportunities and what it’s like to work in science, technology, engineering and mathematics