Following postdoctoral fellowships in Canada and Belfast, Christine took up a lectureship in Marine Biology at QUB in 1995, became Professor of Phycology in 2004, and Head of SBS in 2010.

At QUB, she led the School’s successful 2009 submission for a Silver SWAN Athena award (for gender equality), and was closely involved in achieving a subsequent Gold award. IN 2015, Christine became Dean of Science & Technology at Bournemouth University and in 2017 became Chief Scientist of the UK’s JNCC. After retirement in 2022, Christine became a Non-Executive Director of the AIM-listed company Ocean Harvest, which makes a blended seaweed ingredient for animal diets, improving their health. Christine’s research focuses on molecular systematics of red and green seaweeds, particularly aliens, and the interface between marine conservation and sustainable seaweed exploitation. She has published over 120 peer-reviewed scientific papers and co-authored four phycology books. Christine is also appointed Member of the Royal Irish Academy in 2013 and received a lifetime award of excellence from the Phycological Society of America in 2014.

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