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Zoologist & Geneticist
Emma Teeling
Biologist who studies bats to understand ageing.
Education
Emma Teeling grew up in Ireland with a fascination for the natural world from a young age. She pursued her interest in biology at university level, going on to complete a PhD in bat genomics and evolutionary biology. Her academic path took her through research institutions in the United States and Europe before she joined the faculty at University College Dublin, where she became a Professor of Zoology. Her willingness to follow a niche scientific passion — bats — rather than a more conventional route turned out to be exactly what made her exceptional.
Career
Emma built her career at the intersection of genetics, zoology, and genomics, asking a deceptively simple question: why do bats live so long for their size, and what can that tell us about human ageing? That curiosity led her to co-found the Bat1K project, an ambitious global effort to sequence the genomes of every bat species on Earth. Her research has opened new doors in understanding deafness, blindness, and the biology of ageing in humans. Along the way she has had to champion bats — animals many people fear or overlook — and make the scientific case for why they matter enormously to both medicine and the environment.
Key Lesson
You do not have to study something glamorous to do world-changing science — following a genuine question that obsesses you is more powerful than following a trend. Emma's story shows that deep curiosity about one specific thing, whether it is bats or anything else, can lead you to discoveries that affect all of humanity. If something in biology or nature genuinely grips you, trust that feeling and pursue it.
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