Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin

Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin (; born 25 October 1983) is an Irish academic, teacher, broadcaster and high-profile science communicator. Her parents were teachers, at University College London but having commenced that, she switched plan to secondary teacher education.

She worked from 2008 to 2011 as a student teacher, then a post-primary school teacher, of mathematics, physics and science, at St Mark's Community School in Tallaght, a DEIS school. She also taught Applied Mathematics, not on the school's curriculum, to interested students outside school hours. and is also director of the B.Sc. Science, Mathematics & Education initial teacher education programme in UCD's College of Science. Nominated by colleagues from across the university, she won a 2020 UCD "Values in Action" award for her role as a socially engaged academic, communicator and leader.

She has mentioned that she maintains her registration as a school teacher and might return to this career at some point.

Science communicator Known as a science communicator, especially in Ireland, and citing Richard Feynman as an influence, She had previously co-curated an exhibition at Science Gallery Dublin. and in 2017, she won an award for her Outstanding Communication of STEM from the national scientific research agency SFI.

Volunteer work and public service Ní Shúilleabháin has been a member of the advisory Leonardo Group at the Science Gallery. She has also been an "ambassador for science" in Ireland 2005–2006, and an "ambassador" for Dublin City of Science 2012. She has also been both a host and a judge (from 2005 to 2010) at the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition.

She has been a director of Core Youth Services in Inchicore since 2021.

In April 2022 Ní Shúilleabháin was nominated by the then Taoiseach, Mícheál Martin to chair the national Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss. The recommendations of the Assembly were published in March 2023 and its report was presented to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in early April 2023; the report and recommendations will be reviewed by the Houses of the Oireachtas and the government, with a response due from government by the end of 2023. She was nominated by the government as Ireland's representative at a special International Mother Earth Day meeting mandated by the General Assembly of the United Nations, the "12th Interactive Dialog of the United Nations General Assembly", and made a brief presentation of the work of the Citizens' Assembly and Ireland's position to the plenary session of this meeting before joining the interactive sessions.

Media career Rose of Tralee 2005 contest Ní Shúilleabháin was crowned the 47th Rose of Tralee on 23 August 2005, in a ceremony broadcast by RTÉ Television. Ní Shúilleabháin was considered by bookmakers to be an early favourite to win the Rose of Tralee contest

Broadcaster, 2005 to 2021 Ní Shúilleabháin has worked as a broadcaster and host since her Rose of Tralee win. In 2007 she was a member of The Panel on RTÉ Two In 2009 she hosted the weekly Irish music show The Reel Deal on RTÉ. She also hosted regularly on Dublin's Irish language radio station, Raidió na Life,

She has been a presenter of two flagship science programmes on RTÉ, The Science Squad from 2012 to 2014, and, from 2015 until 2021, 10 Things to Know About..., both with Jonathan McCrea and Kathriona Devereux. She had previously stated, in 2009, "Some day I would love to present a Tomorrow's World-style, science-based TV programme."

She presented the RTÉ travel show Getaways with Joe Lindsay for two series and presented the Fleadh Cheoil programme, with John Creedon, from 2014 to 2018.

Music and writing Ní Shúilleabháin spent many years as a member of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, and won awards for sean-nós singing, while also writing songs; she also won awards for poetry and short-story writing.

Recognition In addition to appointments, Ní Shúilleabháin was named as one of the "Top 100 Women in Science, Maths and Engineering" by Silicon Republic in 2014, as one of the "40 under 40 European Young Leaders" by the Friends of Europe in 2017, She is co-author of a paper for the 2014 annual conference of the Association for Teacher Education in Europe, "Investigating Representations of Ratio among Prospective Mathematics Teachers: a Study of Student-Teachers and Students of Mathematics in an Irish University".

Personal life Ní Shúilleabháin was in a relationship with broadcaster Ryan Tubridy from 2009 to 2014. She married Carlos Diaz in a private ceremony in 2017. As of 2020, they have two sons.

She has noted her continued interest in Irish culture and status as a Gaeilgeoir, stating "for me, Irish culture is so important. I dance, I play, I speak the language".

In September 2020, Ní Shúilleabháin spoke about her experience of being harassed and stalked, even beyond Dublin, over a two-year period, from 2015 to 2017, by Hans-Benjamin Braun, a fellow professor at UCD. Despite many logged reports to the university's human resources function, and support from multiple colleagues, the problem continued and ultimately a report was made to the Garda Siochana. A prosecution for harassment eventually followed, in 2019, and the harasser was barred from making any contact with Ní Shúilleabháin for five years. Her speaking out led to changes in UCD policy on sexual harassment and violence and to changes to national policies on this subject at Irish Higher Education Institutions. She eventually received a formal apology from the acting president of UCD in 2022; the perpetrator of the harassment had meantime left the university.