Professor Philip Nolan, alumnus of the UCD School of Medicine, has been elected Honorary Fellow of the Physiological Society. Honorary Fellowship is the highest honour that The Physiological Society presents to an individual. It is awarded to those individuals who are ‘persons of distinction in science who have contributed to the advancement of physiology’.
Prof Nolan was the first member of his family to have the opportunity to attend university and earned degrees in Physiology (1988) and Medicine (1991) at UCD. He was appointed to the academic staff of the Department of Human Anatomy and Physiology at UCD in 1996 and he won UCD President’s Awards for both Research and Teaching. He became involved in higher education leadership from 2003, when he was appointed Director of the UCD Conway Institute for Biomolecular and Biomedical Research in 2003, before becoming Vice-President Academic and Deputy President at UCD in 2004. Prof Nolan was President of Maynooth University from 2011 to 2021.
During 2020 and 2021, Prof Nolan was centrally involved in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ireland, as a member of the National Public Health Emergency Team, chairing its disease modelling subgroup and synthesising scientific advice on the management of the pandemic.
He was appointed Director General of Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), Irelands primary funder of science and engineering research, in January 2022, and May 2023, the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris TD, appointed Prof Nolan the CEO-designate of Research Ireland, the new research funding agency to be formed by the amalgamation of SFI and the Irish Research Council. He is a strong advocate for the importance and value of fundamental curiosity-driven research across all disciplines as the foundation of a thriving research and innovation ecosystem. He is a Member of the Royal Irish Academy, an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, and an Honorary Fellow of the Physiological Society.
The above content is from Prof Philip Nolan's profile on The Physiological Society's website. The full profile can be accessed here.
Congratulations to Prof Nolan on this terrific recognition.