Kieran began his research career with an honours at Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Ireland where he explored the effects of warming on invasive freshwater plants. From there he moved to Canada for an MSc. in Biology at St. Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia, to continue his work in invasion ecology, but this time with a marine focus. The MSc. aimed to establish the role of abiotic conditions on the variable population growth of a highly invasive sea squirt in the subtidal coastal ecosystem.

Currently, Kieran is in his 3rd year of a PhD at IMAS, where he is focused on body size theory in relation to cephalopods, particularly with regard to trophic dynamics and how to incorporate cephalopods accurately in size structured ecosystem models. This poses a number of unique challenges given cephalopods rapid growth, high population turnover and many remarkable feeding behaviours.