To mark International Women’s Day on the 8th of March, Trinity Women Graduates in partnership with Women in Research Ireland, are putting the spotlight on two leading Irish scientists in the global Covid response: Professor Aoife McLysaght (TCD) and Professor Máire Connolly (NUIG). We will have a conversation with these renowned experts to hear their perspective on Covid and the global response, what drives them in their careers, and what attracted them to their respective research fields. We look forward to many of our members joining this topical conversation.
This is a free event, book your ticket here.
Meet the speakers
Professor Máire Connolly - National University of Ireland, Galway Photo by Martina Regan
Professor Máire Connolly is a graduate of medicine from NUIG, holds a Masters in Public Health from UCD and has a Diploma in Tropical Medicine from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Her areas of expertise include global health security, emerging infectious diseases, pandemic management and humanitarian response. She coordinated a Horizon 2020 security project on pandemic management in the School of Medicine at NUIG (2015-2017) and is principal investigator of the phase 2 project on pandemic preparedness and response which commenced in February 2021. She is currently a public health adviser to the Department of Health in Ireland on the COVID-19 response; a member of the Expert Advisory Group (EAG) to the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET); and a member of the Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group (IEMAG) to NPHET.
Prof Connolly worked with the World Health Organisation in Geneva from 1995 to 2012, where she was policy advisor to WHO’s Assistant Director-General for Health Security and lead focal point for pandemic preparedness (2007-2012). Prior to that she was WHO’s Coordinator for Disease Control in Emergencies (2000-2007). She has worked on UN response teams in over 20 countries including Afghanistan, Kosovo, Iraq, Iran, Gaza, East Timor, Uganda and most recently Jordan as part of WHO’s Syrian crisis response. Prof Connolly has peer-reviewed publications in journals such as The Lancet and Emerging Infectious Diseases and has published a number of books on communicable diseases in emergencies.
Professor Aoife McLysaght is Head of the Genetics Department at Trinity College Dublin, where she has led a research group focussing on Molecular Evolution since 2003.
She was a member of the international consortium that published the first draft of the Human Genome sequence in 2001; was the first to discover novel human-specific genes, in 2009; identified links between gene duplication patterns and human disease; and has made significant contributions to our understanding of the human genome, as well as the genomes of other animals, plants and viruses.
Aoife is on the editorial board of Molecular Biology and Evolution, Genome Biology and Evolution, and Cell Reports. She is also a member of the Genetics Society, and the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution, serving as Treasurer from 2012-14 and being elected President in 2017.
Aoife takes a keen interest in communicating science to the public in an engaging and accessible manner. She has given many talks at public events, including music festivals, The Royal Institution, and Brian Cox and Robin Ince’s Christmas Science shows. She is a frequent contributor to radio discussions including on BBC Radio 4, appeared on live TV, contributed to TV science documentaries, and has been a regular columnist for the Irish Times science page.
In 2016 Aoife gave the prestigious JBS Haldane Lecture of the Genetics Society, at the Royal Institution.
Celebrate International Women’s Day 2021 with Trinity Women Graduates and Women in Research Ireland.