Trinity College Botanic Garden is headed up by the Director and managed by the Curator/Administrator with the assistance of an outreach officer and two full-time horticultural staff. From time to time student volunteers assist the horticultural staff, and there are also opportunities for summer student internships.
Professor Jennifer McElwain
Director
Jennifer (Jenny) McElwain holds the 1711 Chair of Botany at Trinity College Dublin’s School of Natural Sciences and is the current Head of Botany in the School. As Director of the botanic garden, Jenny is responsible for strategic development planning, including funding, scientific and technical development and industry and public engagement. She is passionate about plant conservation and research and is currently driving strategies to protect and enhance the unique collections held at the garden to create a modern, research-driven botanic garden for the next century.
Jenny also heads up a research lab investigating plant-climate interactions and the role of fossil plants in palaeoclimate, and teaches undergraduate palaeobotany. Learn more about Jenny’s research and teaching here.
Dr Stephen Waldren
Curator/Administrator
As curator, Stephen (Steve) Waldren is responsible for the management and development of the living collections, as well as the day-to-day running of the garden. As an conservationist and island ecologist he has added many interesting and rare island species from SE Asia and Pacific regions to the collections for conservation at the garden. Steve is an Associate Professor in Botany at Trinity College. Learn more about Steve’s teaching and research interests here.
Dr Michelle Murray
Outreach Officer
Michelle is responsible for communications and development of outreach and public engagement programmes in this new role. She will also assist the Director and Curator in strategic planning and funding projects for the garden, as well day-to-day operations. Michelle’s PhD research investigated some of the effects of recent climate change on woody vegetation in multiple biomes across North America, Puerto Rico and Fiji. She is also a trained horticulturist.
Read about Michelle’s research here.
Mr. Michael McCann
Gardener
Mick has worked as a gardener here since 1985. He gets great enjoyment and satisfaction from his work, and every day is inspired by the beauty and diversity of the plants he tends. This inspiration is manifested in Mick’s poetry writing and the spoken word. He recently collaborated with final year multimedia students from Dublin City University, who produced a book and a film about colour blindness which centred around one of his poems and which was partly filmed at the garden.
Ms. Elizabeth Bird
Gardener
Elizabeth (Liz) did her horticultural and botanical training in London and has worked in public and private gardens throughout the UK and Ireland, including Corpus Christi University, Cambridge and Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, London. Liz has been with Trinity Botanic Garden for over 23 years, and takes great pleasure in looking after the Order Beds, the Cycad, Irish and Experiment houses, and the South Arboretum.