Mary Lynam

Mary graduated from Maynooth with a BSc (Hons) in Biology and Chemistry in 1981. In 1985 Mary obtained an MS in Chemistry from the University of Notre Dame.  After graduation she worked at the University of Minnesota, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (NY) and the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor).  Mary returned to school and graduated with a PhD in Environmental Health Sciences from the University of Michigan in 2003.  From there she moved to North Carolina to pursue postdoctoral research at the US Environmental Protection Agency in Research Triangle Park.  In 2007 she returned to Michigan to teach in the Science and Mathematics Department at Marygrove College, Detroit.  In 2010 Mary became a Research Investigator in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Michigan.  Mary is a member of a group that characterizes constituents in air pollution, e.g. particulate matter, mercury, trace element etc.  Her job entails field monitoring of air pollutants, laboratory analysis and manuscript writing, all of which she loves.

Mary's days in Maynooth were filled with great times, great professors, students, friends, parties, dances etc. Mary says of Maynooth "there is so much about my education there that makes me realize how progressive and forward looking a place it was in the 1980s.  During my last year of studies, there were ten of us in the BSc (Hons) cohort.  We had small lecture classes, engaged in undergraduate research and interacted with faculty on a daily basis.  Thirty years later, research is considered a must in the undergraduate curriculum in the Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields in the United States.  Maynooth was also ahead of its time with respect to the presence of women faculty in STEM fields notably, Professor’s Anne Burnell (Biology) and Susan McKenna Lawlor (Physics) who were my teachers and role models who inspired me to pursue a career in the sciences.  My education at Maynooth prepared me to pursue further studies in the US and compete with the brightest and best from around the globe."