About Mary Mulvihill

Whether it's stuffed animals or pressed plants, art-science collaborations or the latest cutting-edge  news  . . . Mary Mulvihill loves it all.  She also loves bringing these stories to radio listeners and, as The Irish Times says, she has "a way of making her subject instantly accessible".

Mary loves the curiosity and scepticism of science, and its approach to explaining the world around us.  "Some people think you can only explain science on television, with lots of visuals and images. But with a little thought and preparation, you can actually do much more on radio, where you don't have to worry about what pictures to show."

Recent series for RTE Radio One and Lyric FM have included: Left Brain/Right Brain (art-science); The Quantum Leap; Washed, Dried & Pressed (from the National Botanic Gardens); and Chopped, Pickled & Stuffed (from the Natural History Museum).

For over 20 years Mary has been one of Ireland's foremost science journalists. She presented several popular science radio series and documentaries, was a regular contributor to the Pat Kenny Show, edited Technology Ireland magazine for 10 years, and wrote regularly for newspapers such as The Irish Times and Sunday Business Post. Her award-winning book, Ingenious Ireland, published in 2002, takes readers on a magical journey around Ireland's scientific treasures.

These days, she also works as a media and communications consultant, and helps train researchers to explain their work to general audiences.

In a previous existence, she worked as a research geneticist with the national agricultural research authority (now called Teagasc) where, among other things, she judged pedigree cows and helped AI (artificial insemination) stations to select the best bulls by examining statistics on their mothers' milk yield.  But that's another story!