Passionate about igniting curiosity and rekindling people’s passion for knowledge, Niamh shares space stories in broadcast and print journalism, podcast and video platforms to communicate science topics to the general public.

Based between the International Space University campus in Strasbourg, France, USA and Ireland, Niamh holds academic qualifications from Cambridge University (Practical Science Communicating) and University College Dublin (PhD in Science, Masters and Bachelor honours degrees in Engineering).

Her work in communicating space and science topics with the public has been recognised by the European Space Agency, where she was awarded the ESA Champion in Education in 2022, and by Science Foundation Ireland, who bestowed her with the Outstanding Contribution to STEM Communications Award in 2018. As global faculty at the International Space University, she has been lecturing in Space Humanities topics across many of their programmes since 2016. Niamh is a member of The International Association of Astronomical Artists, International Science Writers Association, Association of British Science Writers and Women in Aerospace Europe.

Niamh has over 10 years experience in writing human space and science stories. She contributes to The Irish Times, and since 2016, has been contributing features & review articles for BBC’s Sky at Night magazine. She is foreign national press for European Space Agency activities in the US and contributes science and space news to BBC, RTÉ and other broadcast media.

In 2020, she published her first book Dream Big from Mercier Press and has written three full-length theatre shows, some of which have toured internationally with support from Culture Ireland, The Arts Council of Ireland, Science Foundation Ireland and ESERO Ireland.

As part of Science Week 2021 and 2022, she wrote and hosted Science Week, Live! a live streamed programme about science in society and co-created with young adults. Other Science Week events funded by SFI include Baking in Space and Art in Mind. She was science communicator in residence for Abbeyleix Climate Action project (2020-2021) and Crumlin Creative Climate Action project (2021-2022), a government-funded community-led initiative to tackle climate change. 

She is currently producing the second season of her podcast Humans of Space and contributes monthly to Austrian radio’s Space Specials with multi-award winning Space architect Dr. Barbara Imhof. She hosted the Space Hub segments for three seasons of RTÉ’s Home School Hub, during the COVID pandemic in 2020/2021. 

In 2023, she will travel to the Antarctic as part of a global Women in STEM climate activism initiative, Homeward Bound. Niamh’s life ambition is to travel to the orbit of space as space communicator and educator to share this unique experience with audiences across the globe, in her uniquely human and accessible style.

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