My main research interests focus on photocatalytic technologies for treatment of waste and potable water and solar energy conversion and storage. The other main area of research is in the development of sensor technologies to for remote environments, such as the development of in-situ multicapability array sensors for heavy metal pollution in the marine and contaminated land environments.

On completion of my D.Phil in 1989 I joined the Faraday Centre a spinout company from Carlow Institute of Technology in Ireland. In March 1991 I moved to the Northern Ireland Civil Service as a Higher Scientific Officer attached to the Industrial Research and Technology Unit. 

I joined the staff of the School of Applied Sciences at Robert Gordon University in 1995 where I was involved in teaching and research in environmental science and technology, analytical science and photocatalysis. In July 2000 I was appointed to the Chair of Energy and Environmental Engineering in the School of Mechanical and Offshore Engineering at RGU where I established the multidisciplinary Centre for Research in Energy and the Environment.  I subsequently was appointed as Vice-Principal and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and Commercialisation) at Robert Gordon University in September 2006. In January 2015 I joined the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Queen’s University Belfast as Professor of Chemical Engineering and was subsequently Head of School between March 2016 and August 2018. Since August 2018 I have been Professor of Energy and Environmental Engineering in the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. In January 2025 I was appointed to the role of Associate-Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at QUB. 

I am a member of the UKRI Building a Green Futures Advisory Panel,  the EPSRC High-level Group for the SUPERGEN Programme, the Royal Irish Academy’s Physical Chemical and Mathematical Sciences Committee (previously served as Chair 2020-2022) and a member of the Energy Institute’s Accreditation and Individual Circumstances Panels.  I was a member of the REF2021 Subpanel 8 (Chemistry), EPSRCs Strategic Advisory Network (2021-2023), EPSRC Scientific Advisory Committee on Energy (2018-2022), Universities Scotland Research and Knowledge Exchange Committee (2006-2014) and was a member of the Northern Ireland Water Council (2003-2007), the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Heads of Chemistry Standing Committee (2016-2018), Heads of Chemical Engineering UK Committee (2016-2018) and the Council of the Institute of Chemistry of Ireland (2016-2019).

I am a member of the editorial board of Journal of Physics Energy and an Invited Editor of The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry Series Published by Springer Verlag, specifically co-editor of Volumes II and III on Environmental Photochemistry. I am a Chartered Engineer, Chartered Scientist and Chartered Chemist, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Institute of Chemistry in Ireland and the Energy Institute. I am also a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.