Brian Trench is a writer, editor and lecturer in science communication and cultural history. He is a former science and technology journalist, and senior lecturer and Head of School of Communications, Dublin City University, Ireland. He is the immediate past president of PCST (2014-21), the global network for science communication. He is co-editor with Massimiano Bucchi of the ‘Routledge Handbook of Public Communication of Science and Technology‘ (2008, 2014, 2021), and with Declan Fahy and Padraig Murphy of ‘Little Country, Big Talk-science communication in Ireland‘ (2017).
‘The Uses and Pleasures of Science Writing: Agnes Mary Clerke and Mary Mulvihill’, June 2023.
Brian Trench paid homage to late Science Writer Mary Mulvihill and her best-known publication Ingenious Ireland, likening her contribution to the world of science to be as fundamental as that of Agnes Mary Clerke over a century earlier. His presentation highlighted the unique language and tone woven throughout Mulvihill’s work rendering it accessible to all, and as significant to science pedagogy as Clerkes compilations of astronomy and biographies in the late 19th century.
“RDS Boyle Medalists”, January 2024.
The Boyle Medal, which promotes science in Ireland, is awarded every two years, alternating between a scientist based in Ireland and an Irish scientist based abroad. There have been 39 recipients of the Boyle Medal to date, 2-5 per decade since the 1890s, the most recent being in 2014. Brian has selected 7 more or less well-known recipients of the Boyle Medal. He will outline their work and lives. 
George Johnstone Stoney – 1899 Prof Thomas Preston – 1900 Prof John Joly – 1911 Sir Howard Grubb – 1912 George Herbert Pethybridge – 1921 Walter Ernest Adeney – 1928 William Ringrose Gelston Atkins – 1928
“Boyle Medalists of 1910s”, January 2025.
The Boyle Medal has been for over 125 years one of the highest accolades in Ireland for scientific achievement. Continuing a series of mini-profiles of RDS Boyle Medal recipients, started at the 2034 Winter School, Brian Trench portrays briefly three winners from the 1910s, Sir Howard Grubb (optical engineering), Henry H Dixon (botany) and John A McClelland (experimental physics). All were Fellows of the Royal Society, all were deeply involved in the RDS, and all worked closely with earlier and later Boyle Medalists.
