Dr Thomaé Kakouli-Duarte has earned her PhD at the University of Reading (UK) under the supervision of the late Nigel Hague, on the biocontrol of the black vine weevil, using entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN). She subsequently joined Maynooth University, in Ireland, for her postdoctoral work under the mentorship of Prof. Emerita Dr Ann Burnell, on EPN molecular genetics and on fruit fly molecular quarantine diagnostics. She then joined the South East Technological University (SETU) of Ireland, where she established the Molecular Ecology and Nematode Research Group and currently co-directs enviroCORE, the University’s bio-environmental research centre.

Thomaé thoroughly enjoys teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and has been awarded by the Irish Research Council and the South East Technological University for excellence in Research Advancement and Supervision. She also enjoys interacting with her local, national and international peers, in collaborative research work and other collective projects. She is currently involved in an Interreg-NWE funded project (ReNu2Cycle) working towards soil nutrient sustainability in NW Europe, as well in a peatland restoration project in collaboration with the cooperative Green Restoration Ireland, while in the past enjoyed collaborating with the American giant Alltech Crop Science. She is currently the Secretary of the International Federation of Nematology Societies, the Treasurer of the Environmental Sciences Association of Ireland and the SETU representative in the Environmental Science & Biodiversity Institute of EU-CONEXUS. She has led and organised numerous national and international events, with the hallmarks being the International Symposia on Nematodes as Environmental Bioindicators, under the auspices of the Association of Applied Biologists.

Thomaé and her colleague, Dr Mike Wilson, were the co-editors of the landmark book in their field “Nematodes as Environmental Indicators” by CABI, back in 2009.  Now she works with her present co-editors Drs Gerard Korthals, Sara Sanchez Moreno, Gerhard Du Preez and Ron de Goede, and numerous collaborating authors around the world, to prepare the 2^nd edition of the volume “Nematodes as Environmental Indicators: from Theory to Practice”. 

Thomaé also regularly engages in science outreach activities, be them school visits, supervision of teenager school kids in small research projects for national Irish science competitions and working with Irish local authorities to improve citizens’ environmental quality.