Professor Katherine Fitzgerald from The Folly
been awarded a prestigious
award in the United States.
Professor Katherine Fitzgerald,
who grew up on the
Folly in the city, received the
Science Foundation Ireland
(SFI) St Patrick’s Day Medal
at an event organised by
Science Foundation Ireland in
Washington DC.
The St Patrick’s Day Medal
Award recognises the achievements
of a distinguished Irish
scientist, engineer or technology
leader, living or working
in the USA, who has assisted
researchers in Irish academia
or industry or who has made
signifi cant contributions to the
research ecosystem in Ireland.
Professor Fitzgerald, who
is Professor of Medicine at
the University of Massachusetts
Medical School, received
the award from An Taoiseach
Enda Kenny.
“Professor Fitzgerald has
made a signifi cant impact in
her fi eld of innate immunology,
a research area for which
Ireland is ranked fi rst globally,”
the Taoiseach said.
“I note the strength of ties
that Professor Fitzgerald maintains
with the Irish research
community and the signifi cant
contributions she has made
to immunology research in
Ireland and I must commend
her in this regard.”
Professor Fitzgerald’s
research is focused on the area
of innate immunology, where
her work has defi ned how the
innate immune system protects
humans from microbial
threats.
This work has far reaching
implications for both
infectious and infl ammatory
diseases.
Having published in leading
scientifi c journals including
Nature, Science and Cell,
she has accrued over 25,000
citations.
Professor Fitzgerald is the
recipient of the Irish Society
of Immunology Public
Lecture Award, the Irish
Royal Academy of Medicine
Donegal Medal, as well as
awards from the American
Society of Immunology, the
American Society of Microbiology
and the International
Cytokine Society.
At the University of Massachusetts,
she has helped to
defi ne a group of receptors that
lead to diseases such as Sepsis,
Malaria, Rheumatoid Arthritis
and Lupus.
“I am enormously grateful
to receive the St. Patrick’s Day
Medal. I am very proud to have
been chosen for this award
amongst an esteemed Diaspora
of Irish scientists, engineers
and technology leaders that
have made the US their home,”
she said.
“I value the excellent training
I received in Ireland which
laid the foundation on which
I established my own career.
The training and connections
I have, through my education
in Ireland, keep me always
close to Irish science and all
the best it has to offer. I am
proud to represent Ireland here
in the United States and look
forward to even stronger ties
with Ireland and contributing
to the training and development
of the next generation of
young scientists there. Finally,
I am also very grateful to the
University of Massachusetts
Medical School which has
been my academic home since
2001.”
Professor Fitzgerald grew
up in The Folly where her
parents Jim and Mary Fitzgerald
still live.
She went to school at the
Ursuline and graduated from
University College Cork in
1995 (B.Sc. in Biochemistry)
and from Trinity College
Dublin with her Ph.D. in 1999.
She went to the United
States in 2001 and joined the
Division of Infectious Disease
at the University of Massachusetts
Medical School,
Worcester.
In 2004 she joined the
Faculty as an Assistant Professor
and she is currently Professor
of Medicine and Co-Director
of the Program in Innate
Immunity.
She is involved in graduate
education, training PhD
candidates, teaching PhD and
medical students. “My major
focus is research where I coordinate
a group of 15-20 Phd
Students and post-doctoral.
Our research is focused on
the immune system,” she
explained.
“We are trying to understand
how the immune system distinguishes
between dangerous
pathogens, resident microfl ora
(that line our body surfaces)
and molecules within our own
cells. Our long term goal is to
understand how we can boost
the immune system for the
development of vaccines, but
also how we can block over
exuberant responses that lead
to damaging infl ammatory diseases
such as arthritis, lupus,
heart disease and cancer.”
