Desmond Fitzgerald, MD

Dr. Desmond Fitzgerald is a medical graduate of University College Dublin who trained in Cardiology and Clinical Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University. He remained at Vanderbilt as Associate Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology and Director of the VA Coronary Care Unit. In 1994, he was appointed Professor of Clinical Pharmacology and later Head of Research at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. From 2004, he held various positions in University College Dublin including Vice-President for Research and Professor of Molecular Medicine. He was appointed President of the University of Limerick in 2017 and stepped down in 2020. He was the founder of JAVA Clinical Research Limited and Surgen, a pharmacogenomics company, as well as the Beacon Hospital Academy and is chair of the Brussels-based Hanover ED Group. He has served as director on several hospital boards, including the Mater Misericordiae University and Children’s Hospital Group. He has also served on national and international bodies, including the Irish Medicines Board, the Health Research Board of Ireland (which he chaired), the Irish Heart Foundation, the European Cardiac Society, the Welcome Trust, the National Institute for Health Research UK and the Merck Foundation International Fellowship Program. He has published extensively on cardiovascular disease including thrombosis, genetics and proteomics.