Combat Diseases of Poverty Consortium

Partner Biographies

Dr. Noel Murphy

Dr Noel Murphy has been lecturing in biology in NUI Maynooth since March 2005. His undergraduate and Ph.D. degrees were in molecular genetics from the genetics department of Trinity College Dublin. He was awarded an EMBO long-term fellowship to undertake research on African trypansomes at the Université Libre de Bruxelles in 1984 and in 1987 he moved to the International Laboratory for Research in Animal Diseases, Nairobi, Kenya (now ILRI). There he undertook research on African trypanosomes of animals and humans on aspects of trypanosome drug resistance, parasite differentiation, parasite-host interactions, immunosuppression, disease resistance mechanisms in African wildlife, factors controlling trypanosome growth, differentiation and death, surface-receptor genes and proteins and vaccine development. Between 2001 and 2005 he was a contract lecturer in the Department of Genetics in Trinity College before moving to his current post at NUI Maynooth. The molecular parasitology group that Noel heads in the Institute of Immunology undertakes research on African trypanosomes. Current research is focused on elucidating the molecular processes by which these parasites communicate with each other to control their population size, proliferation and differentiation status.

Dr A. Jamie Saris

Dr A. Jamie Saris holds advanced degrees from the University of Chicago (MA and PhD) and has completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Clinically-Relevant Medical Anthropology in the Department of Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School. He has been working for fifteen years in medical and psychological anthropology in Ireland and North America. For the past five years, he has focussed on issues connected to poverty and structural violence, especially in Dublin, where he led one of the first national prevalence studies on opiate use in Ireland. He sits of the Editorial Board of Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry and has just left the Editorship of The Irish Journal of Anthropology.e.

Dr Fiona Larkan, CDPC Research Associate

Dr Fiona Larkan holds a PhD (Anthropology) from NUI Maynooth and has a special interest in sub-Saharan Africa. Her work concentrates mainly on the inter-related areas of behaviour, risk and health, and research interests include sexuality, risk, ethnicity, identity and development. Fiona has conducted extensive fieldwork in South Africa on the socio-cultural aspects of HIV and AIDS. She currently heads up a research project which seeks to understand barriers to access to ARV treatment for HIV and AIDS in South Africa’s Western Cape Province – a project which is funded by the Irish Health Research Board, Irish Aid and the CDPC..

Dr Thomas Strong

Thomas Strong conducted ethnographic research in the eastern highlands of Papua New Guinea between 1998 and 2003 on social transformation, especially as it is revealed through people's concepts of vitality and bodily fortitude. He has also participated in ethnographic and historical research projects on HIV and sexual risk in the urban United States, on the (post)colonial politics of scientific investigation, and on the symbolism and sociality of transfusion medicine. His publications include essays on beliefs about withering male bodies in highland New Guinea, new theories of kinship in anthropology and cultural studies, artificial heart experiments, altruistic blood donations, and blood donor activism. Presently, he is undertaking new research on changing cultures of HIV/AIDS in rich and poor settings.

Mr. Joseph Clowry, CDPC Education Officer

Joseph Clowry is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin. He is a Science / Biology teacher with many years experience in the Irish education system as well as ten years of international experience in the Middle East and North Africa. Since early 2006, he has been involved in the development and piloting of an innovative Development Education Programme for Transition Year students in collaboration with Self Help Africa. The programme is now in its third year and has been expanded to twelve schools in the Carlow, Kildare and Laois areas. As Education Officer, Joseph will promote the profile of development issues and disseminate the knowledge obtained by the Consortium through an outreach programme targeted to secondary school teachers and students.

Mr. Patsy Toland, Self Help Africa Coordinator

Patsy comes from a background in second level education both as a teacher and school principal. He has been working in Development Education for the past 7 years and is Coordinator of Self Help Africa’s development education programme ‘Africa Alive’ (www.selfhelpafrica.com). He has travelled widely in East Africa as part of this work. His work in Ireland focuses on cooperative and cohesive development awareness programmes in schools, this includes his work on the Transition Year Development Education course as part of the CDPC outreach activities. He is chair of the Irish Development Education Association and is an advisor to numerous related agencies and resource groups including: www.developmenteducation.ie, Worldwise and was the originator of the ‘Science for Development Award’ at the BT Young Scientists event.

Dr Menno Bouma, CDPC Visiting Senior Researcher

Dr Bouma's work experience includes operational research and control of malaria in the North West Frontier Provence (NWFP), Pakistan as Project Manager with MSF-Holland assisting UNHCR programme for Afghan refugees (1988-1991); Interim country manager in MSF head office in Amsterdam (1991-2) in the medical department supporting operational research activities for kala azar in Sudan and malaria in Pakistan/Afghanistan; Malaria consultancies for DFID (UK), MSF (Holland), HealthNet International, WHO and Word Bank and Oxfam (UK); Worked as physician / public health Officer in the West Indies, UK and in Ireland; Research: Malaria projects in Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Colombia and Ethiopia as Research Fellow/ Lecturer at the LSHTM (1995-2003). Collaborates since 1998 with colleagues in Michigan, Princeton and Barcelona Universities and colleagues in India modelling malaria, cholera and the global disaster burden in relation to climate variability (e.g. El Niño Southern Oscillation). Special interest in (historical) epidemiology of infectious diseases with a view to epidemic prediction and early warning.

Dr Angus Bell

Dr Angus Bell is the head of the Malaria Research Group in the Moyne Institute of Preventative Medicine at Trinity College Dublin. Gus trained at the Universities of Edinburgh, British Columbia and Basle and is a senior lecturer in Microbiology at Trinity College Dublin. His research interests focus on malaria, which continues to be a disease of massive world-wide importance and with the spread of drug resistance, one that is increasingly difficult to control. Gus's research concentrates on aspects of the biochemistry and molecular cell biology of erythrocytic stages of the human malarial parasite P. falciparum (especially the microtubular system, immunophilins, and the haemoglobin degradation pathway), mechanisms of action of and resistance to antimalarial agents, and new antimalarial drug design. His laboratory is the largest malaria research group in Ireland and the only one capable of culturing P. falciparum.

Dr Eamonn Brehony

Dr Eamonn Brehony is a Training Officer and Community Development Adviser at Ngaramtoni Training Centre, Arusha, Tanzania and an Associate Lecturer at Kimmage Development Studies Centre. Eamonn teaches courses in project planning and management, proposal writing, organisational development and strategic planning and facilitation and mediation skills. He also has a role as a visiting lecturer at University College Dublin, Ireland teaching courses on ‘The Ethics of Development’ and ‘Project Planning and Management’. His role also includes consultancy work, mediation work, evaluations and feasibility studies.

Dr Ngaite Nkomo Chimbandi

Dr Ngaite Nkomo Chimbandi is of the Development Training Department at MS-Training Centre for Development Cooperation; she is also a Regional Training and Development Advisor in NGO Management and Administration. Ngaite completed her Doctor of Management at St Clements University, Turks of Caicos; MSc.-Regional Policy Analysis at Southern Africa Regional Institute in Policy Studies, Zimbabwe; her BSc. Business Education at Middle Tennessee State University, USA; and her Bachelor Professional Teaching Certificate in Adult Education at Middle Tennessee State University. Ngaite’s current specialisation is management and administration of NGO projects and programmes; planning, designing, development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of projects and programmes. She has been employed at MS-TCDC since 2001.

Professor Catherine Comiskey

Professor Catherine M. Comiskey holds a B.A.(Mod) degree from Trinity College, Dublin University and M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in applied mathematics with statistics and epidemiology from Dublin City University. Professor Comiskey is currently employed as Director of Research and Associate Professor of Healthcare Statistics at the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. She has been working in the area of the dynamics of epidemic modelling since 1985, modelling of HIV and AIDS since 1988 and more recently drug misuse research since 1995. In particular, she has been developing models and methods for prevalence estimation and treatment evaluation. She has lectured and published worldwide. Professor Comiskey was invited to become the first Irish representative on the European Monitoring Centre of Drugs and Drug Addiction’s expert group in dynamic modelling of drug related problems from 1997 to 2000.

Derek Doherty

Derek Doherty is a Lecturer in Clinical Immunology in Trinity College Dublin at St. James’s Hospital. His research interests focus on the mechanisms by which the immune system can selectively respond to different types of infectious agents and tumours and how it sometimes fails or responds inappropriately, causing autoimmune and allergic disease. Central to immune regulation are populations of “innate lymphocytes” that provide early signals for the activation of diverse immune effector mechanisms. Derek’s group is currently investigating how these cells can be manipulated for the design of improved vaccines and therapies, focussing on hepatitis B and C and HIV infection, autoimmune diseases of the liver and liver cancer.

Ms Rose Dolan

Ms Rose Dolan is a lecturer in education with a particular interest in the techniques that enhance teaching and learning in the classroom. Rose is the course leader on the PGDE and visit schools and classrooms on a regular basis as part of this role. Rose is also currently involved in setting up a school network that will focus on teaching a health / HIV module with transition year students. In addition, Rose has been involved for a number of years in the planning and delivery of Development Education week with the PGDE students. Rose has responsibility for the Study of Teaching course in the Post-Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE), comprising lectures in general pedagogical methods, skills for managing diversity in teaching environments and video analysis of classroom teaching. This course involves extensive use of videotape recordings of teaching for analysis and skills training purposes, as does her Masters Course in Reflective Teaching and Collaborative Learning.

Dr Sean Doyle

Dr Sean Doyle is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Biology at NUI Maynooth. His appointment to the position of Lecturer (1997), initially, and subsequently Senior Lecturer (2001) at NUI Maynooth has afforded him the opportunity to develop a dynamic research group, form national and international research collaborations and publish in international peer-reviewed journals. Sean’s interests lie in MALDI-ToF mass spectrometric analysis of the proteome of A. fumigatus in response to environmental stress; Nonribosomally synthesised metabolite formation in A. fumigatus: Siderophore identification, purification and characterisation; Fungal gene knockout and silencing to determine gene function and virulence potential in A. fumigatus; Development of a high-throughput screening for fungal 4’-phosphopantetheinyl transferase (4’-PPTase) inhibition studies.

Dr Abdullahi Osman El-Tom

Dr Abdullahi Osman El-Tom is interested in a wide range of development issues including foreign aid, social change, poverty, health, peace and reconciliation and good governance. His current research and writing is focussed on Darfur peace process.

Dr G. Honor Fagan

Dr G. Honor Fagan is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. She has previously lectured in Sociology Departments in Northern Ireland, South Africa and the UK. Since her earliest field research (Cultural Politics and Irish Early School Leavers: Constructing Political Identities (1995)) she has researched women in South African townships, civil society and conflict resolution in Colombia, governance and sustainable development, and is currently researching the potential for ICT’s to deepen democratic political structures. She is author of a dedicated resource website on globalisation and development, the Globalisation, Governance and Democracy Research Group Website. Her work in this area has produced policy reports, several book chapters, articles in refereed journals and she is currently editing the double volume Globalisation and Human Security Encyclopedia by Praegar Press.

Mr Craig Ferla

Craig Ferla is the SPW Tanzania's Regional Director for Africa.

Ms Finola Finnan

Finola Finnan works at Trocaire Ireland.

Ms Breda Gahan

Breda Gahan is Concern Worldwide’s Global HIV and AIDS Programme Advisor. Breda is a Nurse and Midwife with a Masters Degree in Public Health. She has worked and lived overseas since 1984 in Iraq, Sudan, Cambodia and Mozambique. For the past 20 years she has worked with Concern Worldwide. Since mid 2002 she supports Concern’s Overseas HIV and AIDS Programme in its 30 countries of operation, and is supporting Concern’s HIV and AIDS mainstreaming response to the pandemic globally. Ms. Gahan participated with Concern and partner staff and Alliance2015 working colleagues at AIDS 2006 in Toronto. Focus areas of her current position are HIV and AIDS policy and strategy development, international and national level HIV and AIDS advocacy, technical support for Concern field staff and representational and networking roles. Ms. Gahan is also a member of Concern’s Rapid Deployment Unit.

Dr Patty A. Gray

Dr Patty A. Gray has conducted extensive fieldwork in the Russian Far East. She is interested in issues of land tenure, post-socialist transition, and development. She is currently directing a large project on new religious movements (National Science Foundation Arctic Social Science program, award No. ARC-0631419).

Dr Rosarii Griffin

Dr Rosarii Griffin is the Director of Centre for Global Development in Education based at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick. Prior to this, Dr Griffin was both a Lecturer and Course Coordinator in the Centre for Adult and Continuing Education, University College Cork. Earlier on, Rosarii worked as a Researcher Assistant in the Department of Education, University College Cork; as a Research Fellow at the University of Brussels (Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium) and as a Research Officer at Oxford University, UK. Rosarii is also a graduate of Exeter College, Oxford (MSc in Research Methods) and St Hugh's College Oxford (D.Phil in International and Comparative Education) where she served both Colleges respectively as the elected Vice-President and then President of the Graduate MCR. UCC is Rosarii's Alma Mater (BA, MEd and H.Dip in Education) from which she is an honours graduate. Subsequently, Rosarii became an elected member of UCC's Governing Body (2004-2007). Rosarii is the recipient of many awards and scholarships for her academic work including an ESRC Scholarship from the British Council to read at Oxford (1998); the Vice Chancellor's Award for undertaking a Doctorate of distinction at Oxford (2001) and the Weiner-Anspach Award European Award to pursue a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at ULB, Brussels, Belgium (2001). To date, Rosarii has published three books: 'International Perspectives on Special Educational Needs' (with C. Brock) (2002); Education in Transition - The politics and Processes of Change: International Perspectives' (2004) and 'Education in the Muslim World: Different Perspectives'(2006).

Dr Emmanuel M. Kafwembe

Dr Emmanuel M. Kafwembe is a Nutritional Biochemist who is currently principal Scientist and Director of the TDRC. Dr Kafwembe holds a PhD in Biological Sciences from the University of Salford (1991), UK. Dr Kafwembe has successfully carried out many community based studies of vitamin A and the impact of various disease states such as HIV infection and malaria on vitamin A status. He has been a consultant for the National Food and Nutrition Commission, the National Laboratory Policy development and Implementation committees as well as a technical advisor to a vitamin A supplementation committee funded by USAID. Dr Kafwembe has experience in laboratory medicine especially in the area of micronutrient assays. Dr Kafwembe is a member of the National Health Research Advisory Committee and chairman of the subcommittee on research in traditional medicine especially as it applies to malaria. He is currently involved in research in the application of stable isotopes in the evaluation of the impact of nutrition supplements.

Dr Prudence Kaijage

Dr Prudence Kaijage is the Training and Development Advisor for the MS Training Centre for Development Co-operation. He completed his M.Sc. (Distinction) Organisational development and consultancy at Sheffield Hallam University England (1999) and his B.A. (Hons) Social Work and Administration, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda (1988). Prudence’s current specialisation is organisational development, strategic planning and participatory development approaches He has done consultancies in Tanzania, Mozambique, Uganda, Kenya, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Lesotho, and has been employed at MS-TCDC since 1996.

Mr Gozibert Kamugisha

Mr Gozibert Kamugisha has been an assistant lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Dar es salaam since 2006 after completion of his Master of Arts in Sociology with specialisation in medical sociology. His M.A dissertation looked at the perceptions of sexually transmitted infections and subsequent treatment choices. He has been involved in a number of studies and consultancies related to reproductive health and issues of financing health care delivery in Tanzania. Currently, he has registered for Ph.D studies at the University of Dar es salaam and his Ph.D is looking at the sociological aspects of medical malpractice in Tanzania.

Dr Anne Katahoire

Dr Anne Katahoire is an Associate Professor and is currently the Director of Child Health and Development Centre, Faculty of Medicine, Makerere University. She holds a PhD in Anthropology for the University of Copenhagen, an M. Ed (Hons) from the University of Glasgow and a BA Social Science from Makerere University. During the last 20 years, she has worked, researched and published in the areas of education, health and HIV/AIDS.

Dr Joseph Keane

Dr Joseph Keane is a consultant Respiratory Physician at St. James's Hospital, Dublin. Joseph has completed a post-doc fellowship in Dr. Hardy Kornfeld’s lab, Boston University. During this time, he attracted NIH funding for basic research of tuberculous host response while developing clinical tuberculosis care for patients. His seminal report on the association of tuberculosis with TNF blockers has been referenced over 700 times. Joseph serves on TB writing committees for national organisations on three continents and receive 8-10 invitations to speak internationally per year. His interests include immunology of host/pathogen interactions in humans; pharmacology of agents that predispose to reactivation of latent tuberculosis infection; developing new tests for tuberculosis; vaccine development.

Dr Gary Keating

Dr Gary Keating is the Head of Research and Development at Biotrin International, Ltd.

Dr Michael Kibe

Dr Michael K. Kibe is a lecturer in the Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, University of Nairobi. Michael teaches Biochemistry and Molecular Biology to undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Dr Moses Limo is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Egerton University, Kenya. After working as a Research Fellow at the International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases (ILRAD) now ILRI, Kenya, he joined the University of California, Davis, USA as a Postdoctoral Scholar. He worked at the International Center for Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) as a Research Scientist.From 1996 he worked for Egerton University becoming the Chairman of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 1997 until 2004 when he was appointed the Director of Postgraduate School. He has served in various academic committees and scientific Organisations including member of the Board of African Regional Postgraduate in Insect Sciences. He is currently a member of Egerton University Research Ethics Committee. He has taught courses in Biochemistry and Biotechnology for many years. He also teaches Bioethics at Egerton University. His scientific and research interests focus on the application of molecular biological techniques to control disease vectors and other pathogens that exert a heavy toll in the health of people and animals.

Dr George Lubega

Dr George Lubega is Professor in the Department of Veterinary Parasitology and Microbiology at Makerere University. The department of Veterinary Parasitology & Microbiology consists of two sections, namely Parasitology (teaching entomology, helminthology and protozoology) and Microbiology (teaching Veterinary Bacteriology and Mycology, Veterinary Virology, Immunology, Wildlife Microbiology, Food Microbiology, Biomedical Microbiology, Molecular Microbiology, Applied Molecular Microbiology, Advanced Microbiology and Immunology).

Dr Eligius Lyamuya

Dr Eligius Lyamuya has been involved in Teaching, Research and Public Service as a University academic staff member. His main field of expertise is microbiology and immunology of infectious diseases, especially those that are endemic in the tropics. He has researched, among others, HIV, hepatitis viruses, plague and sexually transmitted disease agents. His work with HIV began in 1988 soon after joining the M.Med (Microbiology) programme. During his M.Med dissertation work, he determined serum immunoglobulin profiles in HIV-infected versus uninfected adults, and IgG subclass response to gp 41 among HIV infected Tanzanian adults. His PhD thesis at the Karolinska Institute 2000 concerned “HIV-1 infection in Tanzania with special reference to early diagnosis in children and preparations for vaccine trials”. During this training he worked extensively with HIV PCR, CD4 monitoring methodologies and HIV serology. Eligius is Editorial Board Member of Tanzania Medical Journal, Tanzania Health Research Journal, and the Ethiopian Journal of Health Development and Egyptian Journal of Immunology.

Dr Bernard Mahon

Dr Bernard Mahon directs research focused on fundamental understanding of the immune system at NUI Maynooth. A major focus of the Mahon team is the immune response to neonatal infections, immunomodulation and vaccination. The goal is to confront infant mortality through the design of better vaccines and adjuvants that protect infants against infectious disease. Reflecting a twenty year commitment to global health, the Mahon group have been involved in work on polio and HIV vaccines and more recently on tackling respiratory infections including whooping cough. He has worked in urban and rural Pakistan and has a close collaboration with the Institut Pasteur de Lille. He has provided advice and consultancy on the immunisation of neonates, diseases of poverty and improved diagnostics to the European Commission and WHO.

Dr Chandana Mathur

Dr Chandana Mathur is the coordinator of the Postgraduate Programme in Anthropology and Development at NUI Maynooth. She earned her M.A. degree at the Delhi School of Economics in the University of Delhi, and her doctorate at the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science, New School for Social Research in New York. Prior to her involvement in anthropology and development in Maynooth, she has had working experience of development issues from her time with the United Nations and in the field of development journalism. As part of the Programme in Anthropology and Development, she has chiefly taught courses on anthropological political economy and the anthropology of gender in Third World contexts. Her research on South Asia also spans issues in ecological anthropology and sustainable development, communalism and religious nationalism, the anthropology of work, and the anthropology of globalisation and transnational processes. She continues to publish in Indian as well as international fora, and has strong ties to civil society and academic institutions in India.

Dr Jacqueline Mgumia

Dr Jacqueline Mgumia works in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Dar es salaam in Tanzania.

Dr Sinead Miggin

Dr Sinead Miggin’s work is based around investigations into the molecular mechanisms involved in regulating the innate immune system through the Toll-like receptors (TLRs) when they are activated in response to the molecular components of the pathogens, Mycobacteria and Salmonella. Sinead’s interests include exploring the molecular architecture of the TLR in response to different TLR activation molecules with the aim of identifying ligand-specific TLR complexes. She is also interested in the role played by pro-inflammatory caspases, particularly caspase-1, in the aetiology and pathogenesis of debilitating chronic inflammatory diseases.

Professor Paul Moyagh

Professor Paul Moynagh is the Head of Laboratory in the Department of Biology and Director of the Institute of Immunology at NUI Maynooth.

Associate Professor George Nasinyama

Associate Professor George Nasinyama is the Head of Department of Public Health & Preventative Medicine at Makerere University.

Dr Derek P. Nolan

Dr Derek P. Nolan’s research has, for the past twenty years, focused on the African trypanosome Trypanosoma brucei. These parasitic protozoans cause sleeping sickness in humans and Nagana in domestic animals. Human sleeping sickness is invariably fatal unless treated. The main research goal of the group is the characterisation of the unique constituents of this pathway and their functional role in the uptake of essential growth factors. This is linked with the discovery and development of agents that selectively disrupt these processes and ameliorate the burden of trypanosomiasis. Derek’s current research activity covers the following linked areas including identification and characterisation of constituents of the flagellar pocket and endocytic pathway, vesicle traffic and the functional role of the actin cytoskeleton, aminotransferases and unusual aspects of bioenergetic pathways in trypanosomes.

Dr Suzanne Norris

Dr Suzanne Norris is a Consultant Hepatologist/Gastroenterologist and Senior Lecturer in Clinical Medicine at St. James’s Hospital, Dublin.

Mr Conor O'Dea

Conor O'Dea is the General Manager at GeneMedix in Tullamore, Co. Offaly .

Dr Shirley O’Dea

Dr Shirley O’Dea leads the Epithelial Immunobiology Laboratory in the Institute of Immunology at NUI Maynooth. Research within the group focuses on characterisation of stem cells, differentiation pathways and signalling networks within the lung epithelium in health and disease using cell biology, molecular biology and proteomics techniques as well as animal models, with the ultimate aim of developing novel treatments for lung disease. The group currently comprises 6 PhD students, 1 postdoctoral scientist and 1 research assistant.

Dr Joseph Okao Olobo

Dr Joseph Okao Olobo has over 15 years of post doctoral experience in mainly research in immunology of Leishmania and TB, and has experience in a number of national and international institutions in the developing world. Joseph was one of the first to demonstrate that antibodies have no protective role during infection with Leishmania, and developed the non-human primate model for Leishmania and used it to test different vaccine formulations in combination with various adjuvants including IL-12. He has also delineated human serum cytokines that are associated with different stages of infection with Mtb. Joseph was involved in a major collaboration on TB vaccine development by examining the immunogenicity of purified mycobacterial antigens with cells from TB patients and their contacts, and has experience in site development for clinical trials.

Professor Dennis G. Pringle

Professor Dennis G. Pringle has been a lecturer in the Department of Geography, National University of Ireland, Maynooth since 1974. He completed his doctorate on methods for quantifying spatial variations in social deprivation in Queen’s University, Belfast in 1978. He introduced Medical / Health Geography into Ireland in the early 1980s and was also an early pioneer in the development of Computer Cartography / GIS since the 1970s. He is currently a Research Associate in the National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis (NIRSA) and the National Centre for Geocomputation (NCG). His current research interests include: the impact of social and spatial inequalities upon health; the history of infectious diseases; emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases; social influences upon the epidemiology of schizophrenia and bipolar disorders; and GIS applications in spatial epidemiology. He is involved in the Health Atlas Ireland project that aims to provide on-line health-related information for health service planners and academic researchers in Ireland using open source software.

Mr Paddy Reilly

Mr Paddy Reilly works with the Kimmage Development Studies Centre. His responsibilities include overall strategic planning, policy-implementation, direction and management of the KDSC. He is principally involved with promotion of KDSC's activities, recruitment and co-ordination of staff, overall institutional and curriculum development and direction, budgeting and financial accountability, and reporting to Board of Directors and main stakeholders and donors. He also has a teaching role and is directly involved in preparing and presenting lectures within full-time and part-time courses, and with supervision of research students .

Dr Charles Rwabukwali

Dr Charles Rwabukwali is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Social Sciences in Makerere University, Uganda.

Martina Schroeder

has been working with the CDPC since October 2008. Prior to joining the CDPC, Martina was a postdoctoral research fellow at the School of Biochemistry and Immunology, Trinity College Dublin. Her research focuses on anti-viral pattern recognition receptors and the signalling pathways leading to the induction of type I interferons, which are important anti-viral mediators. Many viruses have evolved evasion strategies to inhibit or manipulate key components of this immune signalling pathway. Aim of the research is to understand the viral mechanisms for manipulating this important anti-viral immune response in order to develop strategies for overcoming them. On the other hand, there is also potential for the development of therapeutics for autoimmune diseases by mimicking the strategy of the virus. Martina was awarded a Postdoctoral Career Development Fellowship by the Irish Health Research Board in 2007 to study the involvement of the human RNA helicase DDX3 in anti-viral immunity. Most intriguingly, DDX3 is targeted by viruses as diverse as poxviruses, Hepatitis C virus and HIV, all of which pose major global health threats. Before moving to Ireland, Martina investigated the mechanism of the anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-10 and TGF-b at the Humboldt University in Berlin for her PhD, which she completed in 2003. .

Professor Lawrence Taylor

Professor Lawrence Taylor is Professor of Anthropology and Dean of International Education at NUI Maynooth. His research interests include: religion, death, migration and identity. He has conducted extensive fieldwork in carious parts of Europe and the Americas and his publications include five books and many articles on historical and contemporary cultural topics especially in Ireland and the US – Mexico border region. Three of his books on border topics have been done in collaboration with photographer Maeve Hickey, the most widely know of which, Tunnel Kids, presents the lives of a gang of Mexican street children .

Dr Simon A. A. Travers

Dr Simon A. A. Travers is based in the Martin Ryan Institute in NUI Galway and is principally involved in studying Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), the causative agent of AIDS. Most of Simon’s work involves using in silico methods to study the evolution and diversity of the HIV subtypes to try and understand the biological basis of the genetic differences. Simon and other members of the Institute are also studying the genetic basis that determine how HIV attaches to and infects the different cells of the host immune system. Simon collaborates with the Karonga Preventions Study to perform molecular epidemiology of the HIV epidemic in Karonga District, Malawi, and he also collaborates with St. James Hospital Dublin and the National Virus Reference Laboratory to study the molecular epidemiology and evolution of the Irish HIV cohort .