Theme: Outside In

Queen's University Belfast is one of the leading universities in the UK and Ireland with a distinguished heritage and history.

The event will showcase just some of the talent at the University, and will include presentations from students, staff, and alumni, as well as entertainment from associated University groups.

'OUTSIDE | IN' will bring together bright minds to give talks that are ideas-focused, and on a wide range of subjects; to foster learning, inspiration and wonder – and provoke conversations that matter. The speakers will include representation from each of the University's faculties; Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Engineering and Physical Sciences, and Medicine, Health and Life Sciences.
The audience will be made up of members of the public, business and political leaders, as well as friends of the University.

Queen's University Belfast - Riddel Hall
185 Stranmillis Road
Queen's University Belfast
Belfast, Antrim, BT9 5EE
United Kingdom

Delfina Bilelo

Student - Psychology of Childhood Adversity

Delfina Bilello was born in Argentina and soon moved to Italy where she grew up. Later, she spent her teenage years in Spain until she decided to move to Belfast in order to pursue further education in 2015. She successfully completed her Psychology Degree at Queen’s University receiving Top BSc Honours Psychology Student Award. After that, she remained in Belfast where she is currently attending the Psychology of Childhood Adversity master’s course. Whilst her interests have always revolved around child psychopathology, she has recently grown an interest in research around the topics of individual differences and personality and their impact on mental health. Thus, she began exploring the Dark Triad of Personality, namely Psychopathy, Machiavellianism and Narcissism within the InteRRaCt Lab. This emerging field has helped her develop a different perspective on personality, whereby seemingly negative traits can also provide advantages.

Emer Maguire

Speech and Language Therapist. Radio presenter, science communicator and musician

Emer Maguire is an international award winning science communicator, BBC Radio Ulster presenter, Speech and Language Therapist, and a singer songwriter. Hailing from Strabane in Northern Ireland, Emer uses her unique style and sense of humour to communicate the wonders of science to the general public. It all began when Emer was named the UK’s best science communicator in 2015 when she won FameLab UK. Fast forward to 2017, and Emer was named the winner of International Science Stars in Asia. With topics including from “Why do we fall in love?” and “Why do we Kiss?”, Emer inspires audiences to find science as captivating as she does. Emer is also a successful musical comedian; her unforgettable and hilarious self penned songs are a stand out feature of her performances. Emer spreads her love for science and tech by presenting her BBC radio show, “Science and Stuff with Emer Maguire”. She also recently shared her passion for nature with listeners as co presenter of BBC’s “Wild North”.

Jackie Redpath

Community Leader

The Shankill area of Belfast has declared itself a ‘Children and Young People Zone’ and is on a 20 year journey of change to transform the lives of this generation of its children and young people. Numbering 5968, this is now the third generation, over a 50 year period, impacted by the collapse of Belfast’s industrial base, compounded by large scale Shankill redevelopment and overlaid by the N.Ireland conflict and its legacy, leaving an entrenched educational deficit, high levels of ill-health and economic inactivity in a population of 23,000. The Zone is a framework, designed and designated by the community, bringing together a ‘coalition of the willing’ committed to releasing and realising the potential of this generation in the Shankill.

John Garry

Professor of Political Behaviour

John Garry is Professor of Political Behaviour at Queen’s University. His research focuses on various aspects of democracy: elections, referendums and citizens’ assemblies. He has led numerous academic projects funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and was British Academy Mid-Career Fellow in 2012-13. He was a member of the Expert Advisory Group of the Irish Citizens’ Assembly, 2016-18.

Máire O'Neill

Professor of Information Security

Professor Máire O’Neill has a strong international reputation for her research in hardware security and applied cryptography. She is Principal Investigator of the Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT: www.csit.qub.ac.uk ), QUB, and Director of the £5M EPSRC/NCSC-funded Research Institute in Secure Hardware and Embedded Systems (RISE: www.ukrise.org). She recently led the €3.8M EU H2020 SAFEcrypto (Secure architectures for Future Emerging Cryptography: www.safecrypto.eu ) project (2014-2018). She previously held a UK EPSRC Leadership Fellowship (2008-2014) and was a former holder of a UK Royal Academy of Engineering research fellowship (2003-2008). She has received numerous awards, which include a Blavatnik Engineering and Physical Sciences medal, 2019, a Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal, 2014 and British Female Inventor of the Year 2007. She has authored two research books, and over 150 peer-reviewed international conference/journal publications.

Mark Lawler

Professor Mark Lawler is Chair in Translational Cancer Genomics in the Patrick G Johnston Centre for Cancer Research, Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Digital Health in the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences

Professor Mark Lawler is Chair in Translational Cancer Genomics in the Patrick G Johnston Centre for Cancer Research, Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Digital Health in the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences. Professor Lawler is passionate about translating high quality science for the benefit of patients and has over 20 years’ experience in cancer research. He has over 20 years’ experience in cancer research with a significant record of research achievement, having published over 130 peer-reviewed publications and received numerous national and international awards.

Marlene Trimble

Alumnus

My name is Marlene Trimble, I am 22 years old and I am currently employed full time with Mencap. I enjoy the work I currently do and am very hard working and dedicated. I live independently in Derry, Northern Ireland and completed a Psychology degree with Queen’s University Belfast in June 2018. I am very passionate about psychology and how it can help others. My dream career would be applying my degree in a way that would help others the most. I love reading fiction and listening to music as well as getting out for walks in my spare time. My favourite movie series would have to be Harry Potter but I love all things Marvel. My favourite author at the moment would have to be Trudi Canavan, her books are fantastic and very engaging. My favourite place to go to relax is the beach, it always helps me to feel calm and gather my thoughts.

Matthew Thompson

Student - English with Creative Writing

Matthew Thompson is a 24-year old storyteller dedicated to celebrating the 'New Belfast' and challenging the negative narratives about Northern Ireland. His podcast 'Best Of Belfast' features unfiltered conversations with local leaders, entrepreneurs, creatives and ‘Norn Irish legends.’ Before university, Matthew worked at a non-profit in Manhattan that serves the homeless and chronic-hoarding communities of NYC for three years. It was there he met his future-wife Jaci, a nurse from Germany. They got married and moved back to Northern Ireland in 2016. Alongside studying Creative Writing at Queens, Matthew now freelances as a Copywriter & Podcaster to pay the bills and cycles for Deliveroo on his lunch break for the thrills. After building one of the largest social media profiles in the country, he decided to shut down the accounts to focus on having a deep impact on a small group of people instead of a shallow impact on many — a philosophy he describes as ‘Deep Not Wide.’

Patrick Brown

Phd Student - Politics

Patrick is currently a 1st year PhD student at the Senator George J Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, and his research is focused on Universal Basic Income (UBI) and whether it could be used as a tool for conflict transformation in post-conflict societies such as Northern Ireland. He is a graduate in Politics from the University of Sheffield and has experience working in international development and local government. He lives in Downpatrick and also runs his own travel company, Politrip, which offers volunteer abroad opportunities on US political campaigns.

The Priests

Priests & Artists

The Priests hit the musical headlines in April 2008 when they signed a £1m record deal with music giant Sony BMG. Fathers Eugene O'Hagan, his brother Martin, and David Delargy, are all Queen's University Belfast graduates and each has a busy parish in the diocese of Down and Connor. Though their success was overnight, the unlikely trio have actually been singing together for the past 35 years, since they were pupils in St MacNissi's College at Garron Tower, where they were known as 'holy, holy, holy' by their peers. Father Eugene graduated in Scholastic Philosophy in 1982 and his brother Martin followed three years later in Ancient History, when Father David also qualified in History. Their first album The Priests was recorded last year with the Philharmonic Academy of Rome from St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican and spent 13 weeks at number one. Nominated for the 2009 Classical Album of the Year, it was the fastest debut selling classical album ever.