Liam Barry received his BE (Electronic Engineering) and MEngSc (Optical Communications) degrees from University College Dublin in 1991 and 1993 respectively. From February 1993 until January 1996 he was employed as a Research Engineer in the Optical Systems Department of France Telecom’s Research Laboratories (now known as Orange Labs) in Lannion, France, and as a result of this he obtained his PhD Degree from the University of Rennes.

In February 1996 he joined the Applied Optics Centre in Auckland University, New Zealand, as a Research Fellow and in March 1998 he took up a lecturing position in the School of Electronic Engineering at Dublin City University, and established the Radio and Optical Communications Laboratory. From 2006 until 2010 he served as Director of The Rince Institute, an interdisciplinary research centre with over 100 researchers.  He is currently a Professor in the School of Electronic Engineering, a Principal Investigator for Science Foundation Ireland, and Director of the Radio and Optical Communications Laboratory.
His main research interests are: all-optical signal processing, hybrid radio/fibre systems, and wavelength tuneable lasers for reconfigurable optical networks. He has published over 400 articles in internationally peer reviewed journals and conferences, and holds 9 patents.