Q&Alumni

Fiona is a landscape architecture graduate who now lives in the US. In 2021, Fiona and her husband sold their home and business to live a more sustainable life. They started an online community called Truthfully Living. The couple, their two-year-old son and their dog have been living a nomadic life out of a tent for the past six months. They are currently based in Northern Minnesota.

IT consultant and tech entrepreneur Dilan Jayasekara has a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from UCD’s Colombo Campus in Sri Lanka. He relocated to Australia and has risen rapidly in his industry. In December 2021 he was nominated at the Australian Computer Society’s Digital Disruptor Awards as one of four finalists in the ‘Emerging ICT Professional of the Year’ category. He lives in Melbourne with his wife Tara.

To celebrate International Women’s Day, the theme of which is “breaking the bias”, we feature an alumna who has overcome obstacles to obtain an education that has empowered her to become the woman she is today. We are honoured to have Naima Chaudhry as our featured alumna for the month of March. Naima graduated with an MSc in Biotherapeutics in 2019 from the School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science.

Kilian Mallon is a Dean’s Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer in Classics at Stanford University, California. A Dublin native, he completed a BA in Archaeology and Greek & Roman Civilisation in 2008 and an MA in Classics in 2009 at UCD. He has worked on numerous archaeological research projects in Spain, Greece, Italy and Turkey. His research focused on the social and political history of the ancient world through multiple sources including archaeological, legal and historical.

Andrew (AJ) is a joint Economics and Information Social Computing graduate and currently works as a content strategist in Melbourne, Australia.

Mark is the Head of Science and Sport at Explorium - Ireland's National Science Centre. A theoretical physicist by background, Mark is an educator, TV presenter, broadcaster, science communicator, former professional footballer and an award-winning educational content creator and producer.

Nóirín Mosley (Halligan) was born in Dublin, Ireland. Having worked in the insurance and disability sectors in Ireland, she took off for sunny Thailand to work with Sony Asia in product marketing in 1996. From there, she made her way to Melbourne Australia via Papua New Guinea and Sydney. In 2019 she started Educate to Elevate, an online learning business, with her good friend and business partner Jenny Boymal. Educate to Elevate specialises in visually engaging online onboarding programmes for all industries.

Dr Conor Delaney, MD, PhD is a colorectal surgeon and President and CEO of the Cleveland Clinic Florida Region, he lives in south-east Florida with his family.

Dr Helen McBreen is a partner at Atlantic Bridge, a global growth equity technology firm that announced the launch of the University Bridge Fund II in May. This fund is focused on scaling and commercialising research from Ireland’s third-level institutions, including UCD, into the next generation of deep tech companies with global potential. Dr McBreen graduated from UCD with a first-class BE in Electronic and Electrical Engineering.

As we gear up for the announcement of our 2021 UCD Alumni Awardees in September, we spoke to the 2020 winners about their time at UCD, their careers, and the advice they have for students and graduates. These nine awardees are the epitome of passion, success, and ongoing support in their own communities as well as to our community of nearly 300,000 alumni worldwide. To see their full bios as well as the 2021 winners in September, you can visit the Alumni Awards website.