Ned, who has a degree (B.A.I) in electronic engineering and an MSc and PhD in remote sensing,  joined the CMRC in 2002 as project manager for the Marine Irish Digital Atlas (MIDA). From 2006 he has held an EPA fellowship to carry out research into the status of climate observation systems in Ireland and has developed an action plan for long term observations and data analysis in order to meet Ireland’s climate change monitoring commitments at national and international level. He is currently writing a report to document the status of the Irish Climate based on analysis of trends in the Essential Climate Variables. Ned has a major interest in remote sensing and has built up activities in this area over the last number of years leading to the formation of an Applied Remote Sensing and GIS group within the Centre. Research in this area currently focuses on using satellite imagery in helping to improve storm surge predictions; improve ocean biogeochemical products; enhance the shipping picture for the Irish Naval Service and contribute to better land cover and habitat mapping using a combination of optical and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data sources.

From 1999 to 2002 Ned worked for a small, innovative, hi-tech company, Sarmap, based in southern Switzerland, where he specialised in the analysis and application of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data to forest mapping and in particular burned area determination.

Previously he worked on data product quality control and applications programming for the ERS satellite at the European Space Agency's ESRIN site near Rome in Italy, and subsequently within the Space Applications Institute of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy, where he carried out his PhD work on the analysis of global fire patterns as determined from a 12 month period of NOAA-AVHRR satellite observations.

Ned is also the co-chair of the International Coastal Atlas Network. He is an occasional lecturer on remote sensing and GIS topics at UCC and in some overseas institutions.