I am an Assistant Professor of Sociology at University College Dublin, where I direct Chronos Kairos Labs. I also serve as a CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar and as a Faculty Fellow at UCD’s Geary Institute for Public Policy. Formerly, I was an Assistant Professor at the University of Essex. I hold a dual PhD in Sociology and Demography from the University of California, Berkeley; a Master of Science in Traditional Chinese Medicine from Colorado Chinese Medicine University; and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
I lead two funded research projects. The first, supported by Enterprise Ireland, investigates the sociotemporal determinants of senior climate entrepreneurship. The second, funded by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), brings together a multidisciplinary team across four continents to study how venture investors shape the gendered trajectory of AI innovation.
Additionally, I have received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (UK), the Academy of Medical Sciences (UK), the National Science Foundation (US), the US Agency for International Development, UC Berkeley’s Canadian Studies Program, UC Berkeley’s Social Sciences Data Laboratory, and the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans.
Awards and Memberships
I have been recognized nationally and internationally for early-career achievements. In 2025, I was selected as a Global Scholar by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. In 2023, I received the University of Essex’s Best Research Impact for an Early Career Researcher Award and held an early-career residential faculty fellowship at Stanford University’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. I have also served as a National Institutes of Health Fellow at Duke University, an Edward Hildebrand Research Fellow, and a Data Science Fellow at UC Berkeley.
I am deeply embedded in research, policy, and academic communities. I am a core member of the Barcelona Time Use Initiative for a Healthy Society’s Expert Lab, a member of the UCD Earth Institute, and the co-founder of myPoll, an inclusivity-focused, AI-driven survey platform.
Consulting
I have collaborated with the Barcelona Time Use Initiative for a Healthy Society, Foróige, Eurofound, Colchester City Council, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID, and the Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative.
Public Outreach
I contribute to national and international media on time and well-being, including The Conversation, RTÉ, the World Economic Forum, Daily Maverick, Magdalene, and Phys.org.
When not pondering the minutia of time, I love traveling (preferably by motorcycle, boat, or train), photography (especially ephemeral street art), painting (mainly acrylic), studying internal martial arts (perpetual beginner in chen style tai chi, bagua, hsing-i), binge watching time travel movies (I know... just when you were starting to like me... well, no one's perfect) and playing my handpan and didgeridoos.
Recent Publications
The Social Anatomy of Pain: Friendship Loss, Sociotemporal Disparities, and Persistent Physical Pain
2025
While research demonstrates that social network characteristics influence the experience of persistent physical pain, existing studies primarily focus on psychological aspects and are often confined to laboratory settings. This leaves critical gaps in understanding how these dynamics unfold in real-world contexts. One such gap involves the role of discretionary time availability, a key determinant of wellbeing. This is particularly important because friendship loss has temporal dimensions, as individuals must reallocate the time once shared with friends. Using data from the Canadian Time for Health Survey, this study adopts a three-stage analytical approach. First, bivariate analyses explore the distribution of self-reported pain by socioeconomic status (SES) and friendship loss. Next, binary logistic regressions examine the relationship between friendship loss and self-reported pain, accounting for time availability and relevant sociodemographic control variables. Finally, propensity score weighting and robustness tests evaluate whether otherwise similar individuals — differing only in their experience of friendship loss — report distinct levels of persistent physical pain. This research illustrates that: (i) friendship loss is a significant predictor of persistent physical pain; (ii) respondent sociodemographic characteristics shape the experience; (iii) both time excess and time poverty increase the expected risk of pain, suggesting the presence of Temporal Goldilocks Zones. In short, physical pain is concurrently a sociotemporal phenomenon, transcending individual characteristics.