Cara Aisling Augustenborg (born 1978) is an American and Irish environmental scientist, media pundit, assistant professor at University College Dublin and a member of Ireland's Climate Change Advisory Council and President Michael D. Higgins' Council of State. [1] [2]
Augustenborg was born in 1978 [3] in Germany where her father, who has Danish ancestry, was stationed as a United States Air Force fighter pilot; her mother is from County Kerry, Ireland. In her childhood she lived in Pennsylvania, Saudi Arabia and New Orleans before the family settled near the Hanford Site, a nuclear power plant in Washington state, United States, where she attended high school. She has a BSc in biochemistry from the University of Washington and an MSc in Environmental Health Sciences and Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Engineering from University of California, Los Angeles. [4] Her 2007 dissertation was titled Nitrogen recycling for the sustainability of Irish agriculture. Irwin Suffet was her committee chair. [5]
She moved to Ireland in 2003 with a Fulbright Scholarship to do research at Teagasc in County Wexford, and in 2007 moved to do post-doctoral research at Trinity College Dublin's School of Business and University College Dublin's School of Agriculture. [4] She has both Irish and American citizenship. [4]
Since 2011 Augustenborg has led her own consultancy company, Impact Research Management, based in Bray. [6]
In 2014, Augustenborg was an unsuccessful candidate for the Green Party in Irish local elections. [7]
Augustenborg was chair of Friends of the Earth Europe from 2015 to 2019, and of Friends of the Earth Ireland from 2015 to 2017. [8]
Augustenborg is an assistant professor in landscape studies and environmental policy in the school of architecture, planning and environmental policy at University College Dublin, appointed in 2021. [8]
In 2019, she was appointed by Michael D. Higgins as one of the seven presidential nominees on the Irish Council of State, a body which advises the president. [9] In 2021 she was appointed by Eamon Ryan to the Climate Change Advisory Council. [7]
She writes a blog as "The Verdant Yank", which was awarded "Best Irish Current Affairs and Politics blog" in the 2016 Littlewoods Ireland Blog Awards. [10] She hosts a weekly podcast "Down To Earth" on Newstalk. [11]
She was named as "Woman of Influence" in the 2020 Irish Women's Awards. [12]
Augustenborg was married to Irishman Mark Hughes [3] but the marriage ended in 2016. [2] She lives in Bray, County Wicklow, and has one child. [2] She has said that "If I could change one thing in our society, I would take over the airwaves for a week of non- stop climate content." and that the best advice ever given to her was "Good enough is good enough". [2]
Cara Aisling Augustenborg (born 1978) is an American and Irish environmental scientist, media pundit, assistant professor at University College Dublin and a member of Ireland's Climate Change Advisory Council and President Michael D. Higgins' Council of State. [1] [2]
Augustenborg was born in 1978 [3] in Germany where her father, who has Danish ancestry, was stationed as a United States Air Force fighter pilot; her mother is from County Kerry, Ireland. In her childhood she lived in Pennsylvania, Saudi Arabia and New Orleans before the family settled near the Hanford Site, a nuclear power plant in Washington state, United States, where she attended high school. She has a BSc in biochemistry from the University of Washington and an MSc in Environmental Health Sciences and Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Engineering from University of California, Los Angeles. [4] Her 2007 dissertation was titled Nitrogen recycling for the sustainability of Irish agriculture. Irwin Suffet was her committee chair. [5]
She moved to Ireland in 2003 with a Fulbright Scholarship to do research at Teagasc in County Wexford, and in 2007 moved to do post-doctoral research at Trinity College Dublin's School of Business and University College Dublin's School of Agriculture. [4] She has both Irish and American citizenship. [4]
Since 2011 Augustenborg has led her own consultancy company, Impact Research Management, based in Bray. [6]
In 2014, Augustenborg was an unsuccessful candidate for the Green Party in Irish local elections. [7]
Augustenborg was chair of Friends of the Earth Europe from 2015 to 2019, and of Friends of the Earth Ireland from 2015 to 2017. [8]
Augustenborg is an assistant professor in landscape studies and environmental policy in the school of architecture, planning and environmental policy at University College Dublin, appointed in 2021. [8]
In 2019, she was appointed by Michael D. Higgins as one of the seven presidential nominees on the Irish Council of State, a body which advises the president. [9] In 2021 she was appointed by Eamon Ryan to the Climate Change Advisory Council. [7]
She writes a blog as "The Verdant Yank", which was awarded "Best Irish Current Affairs and Politics blog" in the 2016 Littlewoods Ireland Blog Awards. [10] She hosts a weekly podcast "Down To Earth" on Newstalk. [11]
She was named as "Woman of Influence" in the 2020 Irish Women's Awards. [12]
Augustenborg was married to Irishman Mark Hughes [3] but the marriage ended in 2016. [2] She lives in Bray, County Wicklow, and has one child. [2] She has said that "If I could change one thing in our society, I would take over the airwaves for a week of non- stop climate content." and that the best advice ever given to her was "Good enough is good enough". [2]