Lynette Keeney

Dr Lynette Keeney is a Principal Scientist at the Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork, where she leads pioneering research into the synthesis and characterisation of room-temperature multiferroic thin films. These materials, which exhibit coupled electric and magnetic properties, have the potential to transform energy-efficient data storage and computing technologies.
Dr Keeney earned her PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from the National University of Ireland, Galway, in 2005, where she received five university awards. Before joining Tyndall in 2008, she worked as a chemist at Charles River Laboratories, Pre-clinical Services, Montreal Inc. She currently holds the prestigious Research Ireland Advanced Laureate Award (2023) and has been awarded multiple Royal Society–Research Ireland University Research Fellowships (2015, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022), as well as a Research Ireland Frontiers for the Future Project (2020). In 2015, she was named University College Cork’s Early-Stage Researcher of the Year in recognition of her outstanding contributions.

Her current research, supported by national and international funding, focuses on optimising scalable, industrially relevant fabrication methods for multiferroic materials, and investigating whether their unique properties can persist at ultra-thin (near-atomic) dimensions. This work also explores how structural features at the sub-unit-cell level influence multiferroic behaviour and the emergence of novel topologies.

Beyond the lab, Dr Keeney is committed to scientific leadership and public engagement. She chairs the European Conference on Applications of Polar Dielectrics (ECAPD) and serves as the Ferroelectrics Women in Engineering Chair for the IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control (UFFC) Society. She regularly participates in school visits, science outreach events, and student work experience programmes to inspire the next generation of scientists.

Click here to view Lynette’s Google Scholar profile.