Reaching for the stars From the cobblestones in Front Square to opening doors to space working with NASA, Luke Sheehan caught up with Caoimhe Rooney, BA Mathematics (2015), to discover more about her extraordinary journey and her thoughts on the question of life Dr Caoimhe Rooney has had a rare career, even for a Young Scientists contest this year, but notes that talent is mathematician with a powerful academic start and a still being lost overseas. As co-founder of Mathematigals, skillset that could have taken her in many directions: into an outreach initiative to encourage more girls to pursue pure maths or applied, towards astrophysics or heavy careers in STEM, she invests time herself into industry. Her doctoral work at Oxford focused promoting preparedness and confidence, on the reactions inside metallurgical ‘We aim to make maths accessible, furnaces. Now, just a few years later, she is showcase its many applications, and helping NASA analyse data in the search for extra-terrestrial life at the Ames Nobody was telling increase the representation of female mathematicians.’ How did a gifted Research Centre in California. me that I could work student from Belfast go on to use her Forbes, in listing her as one of its in mathematics or exoplanet space talent to approach the life question? Some of the answer reveals a numerical 2022 European ‘30 Under 30: Science & Healthcare’ luminaries, noted the modelling imagination that can make maximum uniqueness of her role as the “sole results from limited means. Describing her mathematician within a group of astrophysicists” work, making models for complex systems, studying the atmospheres of exoplanets (any planet outside Rooney notes how modelling often goes back to our solar system). The scope of the work is broad, with labour with a pen and paper, before coding and running expanding sets of high-priority data to work with, especially supercomputers comes into play. following the 2021 launch of NASA’s $10 billion, sun-orbiting Leaving school with A Levels, her first choice was Maths in James Webb Space Telescope. Yet a central goal of Rooney’s Trinity. She had to do all the application herself since the work with the Ames Center for Exoplanet Studies is to UK UCAS system was promoted more in the North. Why identify atmospheric signs that are correlated to life. Trinity? She had been to Dublin as a child with her parents Growing up in Belfast, she was interested in both mathematics and space but had no idea how that might translate into a career. She feels that Ireland could do more to reinforce knowledge about opportunities for young and had fond memories of the city. ‘I knew Trinity was an excellent university and had a very high reputation for maths, so when I was applying to university I visited again and fell in love with it!’ scientists. ‘Nobody was telling me that I could work in She enjoyed the environment and the four years of study. mathematics or exoplanet modelling. I think that needs to ‘The pressure to succeed academically came from myself start earlier so kids know what they’re looking for and that rather than my surroundings, which were friendly and it’s on their doorstep.’ warm. I enjoyed playing basketball.’ She went straight from She thinks there is huge talent in Ireland and mentions Dublin students, Aditya Kumar and Aditya Joshi, who won the EU Trinity to Oxford for her PhD. A doctorate in ‘Industrially Focused Mathematical Modelling’ may not seem like an obvious pathway to NASA but on its completion she applied
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