Desmond Fitzgerald (professor)

Desmond Fitzgerald (born 30 October 1953) is an Irish medical doctor and academic leader. On 6 October 2016, Fitzgerald was announced as the President-elect of the University of Limerick. He took up this role in early 2017, becoming the fifth President. He resigned in May 2020 for "personal health concerns" citing the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to this, Fitzgerald held the positions of Vice President for Health Affairs with University College Dublin and Chief Academic Officer at Ireland East Hospital Group from 2015 to 2016. Fitzgerald was born on 30 October 1953 to Maureen O’Donovan from Limerick and Thomas Joseph Fitzgerald from Belfast. Fitzgerald attended Oatlands College, Stillorgan, Dublin. He studied medicine at University College Dublin (UCD), National University of Ireland and graduated with a MB, BAO, BCH (Honours), in 1977, and a Diploma in Mathematical Statistics from Trinity College Dublin in 1982. He was awarded an MD from the National University of Ireland in 1994. Following his graduation from medical school at UCD and medical residency in the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, the Charitable Infirmary Jervis Street Hospital and the Richmond Hospital in Dublin, Fitzgerald completed a Fellowship in the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin. In 1983, he moved to Vanderbilt University in Nashville in the US to train in clinical pharmacology and cardiology. He remained in the US to head a large coronary care facility and a research programme into the causes of cardiovascular disease. In 1991, Fitzgerald returned to University College Dublin and shortly after this he established a research laboratory and held attending physician positions at several Dublin hospitals. In 1994, he was appointed Professor and Head of Department of Clinical Pharmacology at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Over the next 10 years, he built a research programme that bridged basic research and the clinical sciences.