Prof. Jennifer C. McElwain is the Head of Botany within the School and Director of Trinity Botanic Gardens. She graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a BA in Botany in 1993 and from Royal Holloway University of London with a Ph.D. in 1997. Her research and teaching have focused on the development and use of palaeobotanical methods (proxies) that use fossil plants to reconstruct the evolution of Earth's atmospheric composition and climate on multimillion-year timescales. Her research program has been successfully funded through both national and international grants and awards, including Science Foundation Ireland, the Irish Research Council, the European Research Council, the US National Science Foundation, National Geographic, and Marie Curie. She was elected a Member of the Royal Irish Academy in June 2017 and awarded for Excellence in EU research by the President of Ireland in 2012. She has published over 100 internationally peer-reviewed publications and two editions of a well-regarded textbook, The Evolution of Plants, published by Oxford University Press. She acted as a board member of the Mary Robinson Foundation for Climate Justice and is currently the Chair of the Royal Irish Academy Committee on Climate Change and Environmental Science.