Organising Committee
Paul McCormack
Chair, Belfast Metropolitan College
Helen O'Connell
Gas Networks Ireland
In recent times I have began to integrate my professional interest in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), training and L&D with my management and engineering experience to engage people and meet agreed goals.
Garrett Monaghan
Pinsent Masons
Garrett Monaghan has consistently been one of the most active renewables and project finance lawyers in Ireland and works across several inter-related disciplines including energy, project finance, corporate/M&A and private equity. Garrett specialises in the development, acquisition, disposal and funding of energy and infrastructure assets. In addition to renewables and infrastructure, Garrett has worked on early phase hydrogen-related projects including offshore wind and green ammonia production. Garrett has also worked in-house within investment banking and energy trading (extending to gas, power, green certificates and commodities trading).
Amanda Daly
Pinsent Masons
Amanda is a business development professional with over 20 years’ experience in Marketing Communications and Media Relations departments of multinational financial institutions and professional services organisations in London, and in Dublin. Amanda worked in one of Ireland’s largest law firms for 7 years, before joining Pinsent Masons in 2019. Amanda spends much of her time in business development for the energy sector, and works closely with Energy Partner Garrett Monaghan.
Edward McGuire
ESB
Edward McGuire is Hydrogen Project Director, Origination and Policy with ESB Generation and Trading. Prior to joining ESB in 2023, Edward served for fourteen years in the Irish Defence Forces where he held various leadership roles both at home and overseas.
Anne Toner
Hydrogen Ireland
Academic & Scientific Committee
Paul McCormack
Chair, CEO Hydrogen Ireland Association
Prof. Fu Bo
Professor, Liaoning Normal University
Dr. Fu Bo is a Professor, Master’s Supervisor, and Associate Dean of the College of Computer and Artificial Intelligence at Liaoning Normal University, where he also directs the Computer Engineering Department. Active in the academic community, he holds leadership roles including Executive Committee Member of CCF Dalian, Deputy Secretary-General of the Dalian Computer Federation, and former Chair of CCF YOCSEF Dalian (2022–2023). His research focuses on digital image processing, computer vision, artificial intelligence, and smart education. Dr. Fu has spearheaded numerous grants from national, provincial, and municipal funding bodies, including the National Natural Science Foundation of China. He has authored over 30 papers in peer-reviewed journals and holds 13 authorized invention patents alongside 6 software copyrights.
Assoc. Prof. Marta Gandiglio
Associate Professor, Politecnico di Torino
Marta Gandiglio is Associate Professor at Politecnico di Torino, Department of Energy “Galileo Ferraris”, and member of the STEPS research group. Her research activities focus on hydrogen technologies, electrochemical energy conversion, with particular expertise in high-temperature SOFC/SOEC technologies, power-to-X systems, and sustainable fuels.
She has participated and coordinated several national and European projects dealing with low-carbon energy technologies and decarbonisation pathways. Her work integrates component and system modelling, optimisation, and design and operation of pilot and high-TRL plants to support the development of efficient and sustainable energy solutions for industrial, transport and energy applications.
Dr. Amin Paykani
Senior Lecturer, Queen Mary University of London
Dr Amin Paykani is a Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Propulsion Systems in the School of Engineering and Materials Science at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). He also serves as a Research Lead at the Centre for Intelligent Transport (CIT). His research focuses on low- and zero-carbon fuels, reactive flow modelling, and thermal management, with particular emphasis on reduced-order and machine learning-assisted surrogate models to accelerate high-fidelity simulations.
Dr Paykani has secured research funding from the EPSRC, the Royal Society, the Leverhulme Trust and the European Commission. He is also a member of the EPSRC Peer Review College and the UKRI Talent Peer Review College.
Prof. Pratibha Sharma
Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Prof. Pratibha Sharma is Cummins Chair Professor in the Department of Energy Science and Engineering and Associate Dean (Academic Programmes) at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. Her research interests include hydrogen storage materials and systems, and hydrogen utilization for stationary and vehicular applications. She has worked on various types of hydrides like chemical, complex and metal hydrides for solid state hydrogen storage, their modifications, catalysis, support and tailoring the reactions mechanisms. On the systems side, she has been working on simulation, design and development of hydrogen storage reactors for various applications. She has supervised 16 PhD students, 40 M.Tech and M.Sc. students. She has more than 105 International journal publications and several patents to her credit. Prof. Sharma is leading several multi-institutional R&D projects on Hydrogen systems development and integration for different applications. These projects have several IITs and industries as partner which are working together for hydrogen-based solutions. A centre on Hydrogen Energy Systems research is established at IIT Bombay and she is leading the activities. She has developed four research laboratories at IIT Bombay. She is having both national and international collaborations in terms of publications, student exchange and joint research projects. She is in the expert panel of various funding agencies of the Government of India and on the national advisory group of National Green Hydrogen Mission(NGHM). She authored book entitled “A Textbook on Hydrogen Energy : Production, Storage, Transport and Utilization” with Springer Nature publication.
She has developed various hydrogen storage technologies based on solid state method and have demonstrated proof of concept for vehicular applications and backup power etc. All the materials and systems have been indigenously developed and can reduce cost by 95%. The systems developed are compact, safe, operate at optimum temperature and pressure and are cost effective and energy efficient.
Dr. Ali Saberi Mehr
University College Dublin and co-chair
Dr. Ali Saberi Mehr is an Assistant Professor in Energy Systems Engineering at University College Dublin (UCD), specialising in hydrogen and renewable energy systems. His research focuses on hydrogen production, storage and integration, Power-to-X technologies, and the techno-economic and environmental assessment of emerging energy systems.
His work spans hydrogen storage technologies from material-based solutions to large-scale geological storage, with a particular interest in translating emerging technologies into technically, economically and environmentally viable energy solutions. His research integrates energy systems modelling, techno-economic analysis, life cycle assessment and optimisation to support the development and deployment of low-carbon energy technologies.
Dr. Saberi Mehr is actively engaged in academic and professional leadership within the hydrogen and wider energy community. He has served as Academic Chair of the Hydrogen Ireland Conference since 2023, leading the development of its academic programme and strengthening engagement between academia, industry and the wider hydrogen sector. He has also held academic leadership roles in major international hydrogen events, including the World Hydrogen Technology Convention (WHTC). In addition, he serves as a Board Member of the ASHRAE Ireland Chapter, contributing to professional activities and knowledge exchange in energy efficiency, building energy systems and sustainability.
Alongside his research and professional leadership, Dr. Saberi Mehr is committed to education and the development of the next generation of energy engineers. He teaches thermodynamics and energy systems at UCD and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).
Dr. Junhan Cheng
Queen’s University Belfast and co-chair
Junhan has extensive skills and experience in renewable energy ecosystem modeling, electrochemical energy storage, fuel cells, and hydrogen production via electrolysis. He is dedicated to integrating hydrogen energy ecosystems and interconnected energy networks to balance localized fluctuations in green electricity supply, supplying chain and end user consumption. By leveraging regional and local energy landscapes and infrastructure, he aims to develop customized next-generation energy integration solutions.
As a Net Zero Researcher at Queen’s University Belfast, Junhan specializes in the dynamic simulation of electrochemical systems. He is also exploring the implementation of digital twin technology and artificial intelligence to optimize, analyze, and control hydrogen energy ecosystems. In collaboration with H2IRL and its partners, he is developing next-generation electrolysis systems for dynamic operating conditions, designing application-specific scenarios and demonstration projects to support Ireland and Northern Ireland’s zero-carbon strategies and island-wide hydrogen deployment.