I completed my BSc and PhD degrees in Chemistry at University College Dublin working on the assembly and structure of non-cytotoxic DNA - lipid complexes for use in non-viral gene delivery. During my PhD, I spent 7 months at the Max Planck Insitute for Polymer Research in Mainz, Germany, where I learned to use small-angle x-ray scattering to characterise the complexes. Following my PhD, I changed my research topic and became interested in protein phase diagrams and protein assembly as postdoctoral researcher in Switzerland and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in the group of Prof. George Benedek.  After almost 4 years in the US, I returned to Maynooth University in Ireland as a Science Foundation Ireland Stokes Lecturer where I established a research group in Soft Matter and Biophysical chemistry. I was promoted to Associate Professor in 2016 and served as Head of Department from 2017 to 2020. I joined the School of Physics at the University of Bristol in 2020.