Project Team

Dr Alison Connolly

Postdoctoral Researcher,
School of Physics,
Arts/Science Building,
NUI Galway.
T: (091) 495289
E: Alison.Connolly@nuigalway.ie

Biography

Dr Alison Connolly, a postdoctoral scientist has been awarded a prestigious research mobility and career development fellowship - The Irish Research Council Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) COFUND Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme entitled CAROLINE – ‘Collaborative Research Fellowships for a Responsive and Innovative Europe’. Alison is an exposure scientist at NUI Galway and her research area of expertise are on human exposures to pollutants which includes human biomonitoring, exposure assessments and occupational hygiene. Alison conducted her PhD research project at NUI Galway and was titled ‘Characterising occupational exposure to glyphosate among amenity horticulturists’ (2018). Another previous project lead by Alison was a pilot study of glyphosate exposures among the Irish population.

Alison is a member of a number of professional societies; the British Occupational Hygiene Society (BOHS), a committee member of the Occupational Hygiene Society of Ireland (OHSI) and a member of the International Society of Exposure Science (ISES) and the student representative and webmaster of the European Chapter of the International Society of Exposure Science (ISES Europe). Further details on her research profile can be obtained at: Dr Alison Connolly Profile

Dr Marie Coggins

‌Lecturer Exposure Science
School of Physics
Arts/Science Building
NUI Galway
T: (091) 495056
E: Marie.Coggins@nuigalway.ie

‌Dr Marie Coggins, is a lecturer in Exposure Science at the School of Physics, NUI Galway and a member of the Health from Environment group at the Ryan Institute, NUI Galway.  She has worked in industry and academia, managing numerous research projects related to the measurement of human exposure to physical, chemical and biological pollutants in a range of microenvironments. Previous research has involved the measurement of exposures to glyphosate and flame retardants among the Irish population using Human Biomonitoring. Further details on her research profile can be obtained at Dr Marie Coggins Profile 

She is currently Academic Director of the NUI Galway MSc & HDip Occupational and Environmental Health & Safety programmes in the College of Science.

Dr Holger M. Koch

Scientific Head of Laboratory,
Biomonitoring division of the Center of Toxicology,
Institute for Prevention and Occupational Medicine (IPA),
Bochum, Germany.

Dr Holger M. Koch has actively been involved in performing exposure and risk assessments by means of biological monitoring over the last 17 years. He received his degree as a Certified Food Chemist at the Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority, Erlangen, Germany, in 1999, after pre-doctoral training at the NYS Department of Health (Wadsworth Center, Albany) and the State University of New York at Albany (SUNY) in 1996/97. He received his doctoral degree in occupational toxicology in 2006 from the University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, with his doctoral thesis centred on human metabolism and biological monitoring of the plasticizer DEHP.

Since 2016 Dr Koch is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health (IJHEH). He is also an editorial board member of Environment International (Elsevier) and served as an associate editor of the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology. He has authored over a 130 peer-reviewed publications (MedLine: Koch HM) on exposure and risk assessment of occupational and environmental chemicals such as plasticizer (phthalates), plasticizer substitutes (DINCH, terephthalates), Bisphenol A, parabens, sunscreens, aromatic amines (including analgesics such as paracetamol) and pesticides.