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]
Early life and education
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 [Wikidata] was her committee chair.[5]
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]
Personal life
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]
^ abc"About Cara". Cara Augustenborg. Retrieved January 4, 2022.
^Augustenborg, Cara Aisling (2007). Nitrogen recycling for the sustainability of Irish agriculture (Ph.D. thesis). University of California, Los Angeles. OCLC174322311.