Vice-Provost and Chief Academic Officer & Deputy President*

Professor Chris Morash was appointed Vice-Provost and Chief Academic Officer & Deputy President in 2016. He is the senior academic officer with responsibility for the academic affairs of the university, and deputizes for the Provost as required. He is an ex officio member of the Executive Officers Group, the university’s Senior Management Team, along with the Provost, Chief Operating Officer and the Faculty Deans.

Professor Morash became the inaugural Seamus Heaney Professor of Irish Writing at Trinity College Dublin on January 1, 2014.   Born in Nova Scotia, his first degree is from Dalhousie University, after which moved to Ireland to join the first cohort of students in the M.Phil. in Anglo-Irish Literature (as it was called at the time) in Trinity in 1985; his Ph.D. on Irish Famine literature is also from Trinity, carried out under the supervision of Professor Terence Brown. Prior to his appointment to Trinity, Chris Morash worked in Maynooth University, where he had been Professor of English since 2007, and founded the Centre for Media Studies in 2003.  He was the first chair of the Compliance Committee of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (2009-2014),and has been an active member of the Royal Irish Academy since 2007.

More about the Vice-Provost and Chief Academic Officer & Deputy President

Bursar & Director of Strategic Innovation*

Professor Veronica Campbell was appointed Bursar and Director of Strategic Innovation in 2015. This role entails providing strategic leadership in the overall development of the campus and administrative services to ensure alignment to the overall strategic objectives of the University. The Bursar and Director of Strategic Innovation is an ex officio member of the Executive Officers Group, the University’s Senior Management Team, along with the Provost, Vice-Provost/Chief Academic Officer and the Faculty Deans. She is an ex officio member the Finance and Investment board committees and chair the Space Allocation and Capital Projects sub-committees of the Executive Officer Group.

Registrar*

Professor Paula Murphy was appointed Registrar in 2016 and has statutory responsibility for the records of both Trinity College Dublin and the University of Dublin. (Trinity College Dublin is the sole constituent College of the University of Dublin, established by Queen Elizabeth I in 1592. For most practical purposes, Trinity College and the University of Dublin may be regarded as one and the same institution. However, degrees are awarded by the University of Dublin, not Trinity College, and this is the main instance when the roles of the two bodies diverge).

Paula Murphy is Professor in Developmental Biology, in the School of Natural Sciences (Zoology Discipline). She was an undergraduate student at Trinity College, graduating in Natural Sciences, specialising in Genetics. She was awarded a Medical Research Council (MRC) Studentship, to carry out research for her PhD thesis at the University of Edinburgh (MRC Human Genetics Unit).  Two Postdoctoral Research Fellowships from the European Molecular Biology Organisation and the Human Frontiers Science Programme provided research experience at the University of Rome (La Sapienza) (1991-1993) and the Ecole Normale Superieur, Paris (1993-1995). This paved the way for current research programmes examining the molecular basis of how cells differentiate and form emerging organised tissues and organs in the developing embryo. Her research contributions are recognised internationally in the fields of skeletal development and morphogenesis. Following a research position in Oslo she returned to take up her current post at Trinity College in 2001. In 2008 she was elected Fellow of Trinity College Dublin. She has published more than 50 research articles in International Journals and held research grants from SFI, the Wellcome Trust and BBSRC.

Dean & Vice-President for Research*

Professor John Boland was appointed Dean of Research in 2015. The Dean of Research has responsibility for coordinating and overseeing the University’s research, innovation, technology transfer, and entrepreneurship strategies.

Professor Boland was previously Director of the Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices (CRANN) and Head of Physical, Computational and Materials Chemistry in the School of Chemistry.  He was a researcher at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Centre and the J.J. Hermans Chair Professor of Chemistry and Applied and Materials Sciences at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  His current research interests include electrical and mechanical properties of nanoscale materials and devices, connectivity is nanoscale systems and the development of neuromorphic devices.  He is a Science Foundation Ireland Principal Investigator and a recipient of a European Research Council Advanced Award.

Dean of Graduate Studies*

Professor Neville Cox was appointed Dean of Graduate Studies in 2016 with responsibility for the coordination and development of academic policy in postgraduate education.

Professor Cox LL.B., Ph.D. is a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin and a practising barrister. He is the author of Blasphemy and the Law (2000) and co-author ofSport and the Law (2004). He is also published on a wide variety of topics in law journals and books. He lectures in the areas of tort law, comparative law and sport and the law. He has been a visiting professor in the University of San Francisco and in Autumn of 2006 he will be a scholar-in-residence in Washington & Lee University in Virginia. In 2005 he was awarded a Provost's teaching award. He is acting Head of School and Director of the LL.M. degree programmes.

Senior Lecturer*

Dr Gillian Martin is the College’s Senior Lecturer whose role is to coordinate undergraduate teaching and learning and oversee admissions. An Associate Professor in the Department of German, Dr Martin has published widely in the area of intercultural communication competence in business / healthcare settings, as well as on the topic of the use of e-learning to support development of intercultural competence. She was elected to Fellowship of the College (FTCD) in 2003 and has been Co-ordinator of the Business Studies and German course since 1992.

Dean of Students*

Dr Kevin O'Kelly is the Dean of Students and focuses on the development and coordination of policies to promote the student experience.

Deputy Director of the Trinity Centre for Bioengineering since 2000, Dr O'Kelly is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland. His research interests lie in the area of materials and biomaterials; failure mechanisms in cancellous bone; changes in bone mechanical properties due to osteoporosis and osteoarthritis; nano-indentation techniques and complex microstructures in ceramics.

Senior Tutor*

Professor Aidan Seery is the Senior Tutor and oversees the tutorial service provided to undergraduate students offering student support in all aspects of College life.  This post is elected from amongst the Tutors.

Professor Seery has just completed a three-year term as Director of the Trinity Research Centre for Cultures, Academic Values and Education (CAVE) in the School of Education. The Centre conducts research into higher education and is the largest such centre in Ireland. Educated at UCD, the Hochschule für Philosophie and the Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich and Trinity [PhD 1995], his research interests include: higher education and self-formation, Bildungstheorie, narrative philosophy and biography, and the philosophical foundations of educational research. He lectures in educational theory and philosophy, higher education and education research methods in the School and has been a College tutor for the past ten years.

Senior Dean

Professor John Parnell is the Senior Dean and is responsible for enquiring into alleged breaches of the College Disciplinary Code by members of the academic staff and for taking further action in accordance with College regulations and statutes.  The Senior Dean is also responsible for allocating rooms for academic members of staff. He chairs the Capitation Committee which apportions the capitation fund to the Capitated Bodies inter alia.  

John Parnell is Professor of Systematic Botany. His primary research interests are centered around the Flora of Thailand and that of Ireland; especially their exploration and description. He also works on the historical and projected biogeography of Thailand and surrounding countries and has recently begun work on selected plant families for the Floras of Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Guianas. He is Curator of the College’s Herbarium and Director of the College’s Botanic Garden.

Junior Dean

Dr Tim Trimble, in his role as Junior Dean, is responsible for maintaining discipline and good order among students and he investigates the alleged commission of disciplinary offences by students.  Dr Trimble is Course Director of the MSc in Applied Psychology at Trinity College Dublin. 

He is currently Principal Investigator across a range of research projects in the domains of adolescent mental health, police and military leadership and management and security.  These projects include policing in various countries and jurisdictions, and both military and private security operations in conflict theatres worldwide.  He is currently developing the application of psychological measurement to economic empowerment projects in the Middle East and South Africa.  Additionally, he is an active committee member of the Psychological Society of Ireland.

Senior Proctor

Professor Werner Blau is the Senior Proctor.  The Proctors have, and exercise, responsibilities with regard to supplicating the Senate for degrees.

Professor Blau is Professor of Materials Physics and a Senior Fellow of the College. Appointed Professor of Materials Physics in 1999, Professor Blau is a Senior Fellow of the College, Member of the Royal Irish Academy, a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and a Fellow of the Institute of Nanotechnology. His main research interests are in the production, characterisation, theory and electronic applications of organic polymers, nanotubes and composites.

Junior Proctor

Professor Richard Timoney is the Junior Proctor.  The Proctors have, and exercise, responsibilities with regard to supplicating the Senate for degrees.

Professor Timoney studied Mathematics at UCD and the University of Illinois, where he obtained his PhD in 1978.  Following an appointment at Indiana University, he came to Trinity in January 1980 and is now a Senior Fellow of the College.  His research is in a number of areas related to complex and functional analysis. In particular he is known for his work on Bloch functions in several complex variables, JB*-triples and elementary operators.

Public Orator

Professor Anna Chahoud is the Public Orator and is responsible for the Latin orations at commencements at which honorary degrees are conferred and on other ceremonial occasions. Professor Chahoud holds the Chair of Latin and is based in the Department of Classics at Trinity College.  She studied Classics in Bologna (Laurea in Lettere Classiche) and Pisa (PhD), and worked in England before coming to Ireland in 1999. Her research concentrates on early Latin and the transmission of Latin texts from antiquity to the early modern period.

Professor Chahoud is the author of a systematic study of Lucilius, the 'inventor' of Roman satire, of articles on Republican Latin and the grammatical tradition, and co-editor of Colloquial and Literary Latin. She has contributed to the New Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.  Professor Chahoud is a member of the editorial board of the Bryn Mawr Classical Review and a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin.

Community Liaison Officer

Dr Ciaran O'Neill is the Community Liaison Officer. The Community Liaison Officer facilitates College’s engagement with society and is committed to encouraging inclusive access to the College community, to promoting wide participation in its activities, and to developing and enhancing the diverse ways in which it engages with the wider world.

Associate Dean of Research

Professor Martina Hennessy is an Associate Dean of Research. She is also Associate Professor Consultant Medical Education in the School of Medicine.

Professor Hennessy represents the University nationally through the IUA and TGRUSE and internationally through Coimbra and LERU. Prof. Hennessy has overall responsibility for some 40 Trinity Research Centres across all three faculties (Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences/Health Sciences/Engineering, Mathematics and Science).  Prof. Hennessy is a clinical pharmacologist and  is responsible for research integrity issues and research ethics policy implementation.

Associate Dean of Research (Infrastructure)

Professor Peter T. Gallagher is an Associate Dean of Research with particular responsibility for research infrastructures.

He is a Professor in Astrophysics in the School of Physics, Director of the Rosse Solar-Terrestrial Observatory at Birr Castle, and works closely with the European Space Agency and NASA. His research focuses on understanding the physical connections between the Sun and the Earth.

Prof. Gallagher is a Member of the Institute of Physics, a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and was elected a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin in 2012.

Associate Vice-President for Global Relations/Dean of Development

Professor Gerard McHugh is the Associate Vice-President for Global Relations and Dean of Development.

Professor McHugh is Associate Professor in Business and Administrative Studies, in the School of Business.

Associate Dean of Undergraduate Science Education

Professor Kevin Mitchell is the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Science Education.

Professor Mitchell is Associate Professor in the Smurfit Institute of Genetics in Trinity College Dublin and a member of the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience. His interests are in understanding the genetic program specifying the wiring of the brain and its relevance to variation in human faculties, especially to psychiatric and neurological disease. He is particularly interested in schizophrenia, autism and synaesthesia.

He is a graduate of the Genetics Department, Trinity College Dublin (B.A., Mod. 1991) and received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley (1997), where he studied nervous system development with Prof. Corey Goodman. He did postdoctoral research with Prof. Marc Tessier-Lavigne at Stanford University, using molecular genetics to study neural development in the mouse. Since 2002 he has been on the faculty at Trinity College Dublin as a Science Foundation Ireland Investigator. He was an EMBO Young Investigator and was elected to Fellowship of Trinity College in 2009.

He is active on Twitter (@WiringtheBrain) and writes a popular blog on genetics and neuroscience (http://www.wiringthebrain.com). He is editor of a new book on “The Genetics of Neurodevelopmental Disorders” (Wiley), and author of an upcoming popular science book "Born That Way" (Princeton University Press, 2017).

Chief Innovation and Enterprise Officer

Dr Diarmuid O'Brien is the Chief Innovation and Enterprise Officer.

Dr O'Brien was appointed the Chief Innovation and Enterprise Officer in January 2017. His responsibilities include leading the establishment of Trinity’s Technology and Enterprise Campus at silicon docks and the development and enhancement of the innovation and enterprise mission for the university.

The Chief Innovation and Enterprise Officer is an ex officio member of the Executive Officers Group, the University’s Senior Management Team, along with the Provost, Vice-Provost/Chief Academic Officer and the Faculty Deans.

Previously Diarmuid held the role of Director of Research and Innovation with responsibility for both research development and contracts office; and the office of corporate partnership and knowledge exchange; and was the Executive Director of CRANN – an internationally recognised centre of excellence for nanotechnology research based at Trinity College Dublin.

Prior to his roles at Trinity Diarmuid worked in senior management roles in a number of start-up companies including NTera, an electrochromic display company; Xoliox a high power battery company based in Lausanne, Switzerland and Deerac Fluidics a company developing tools to support the drug discovery process.