Prof Anita Maguire

Anita Maguire
Governance Board Member

Anita is Vice President for Research & Innovation, University College Cork. Since her appointment at UCC she has played a strategic role in the development of teaching and learning, including the introduction of Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry at undergraduate level for the first time.

Over the past twenty four years at UCC she has led an active research team focusing on synthetic organic and pharmaceutical chemistry, which interacts extensively with the pharmaceutical sector in Ireland and internationally.  She is very committed to postgraduate education, ensuring the research students gain the skills required to underpin their future careers; 40 PhD and 6 MSc students have graduated from her research team since 1997, most of whom have developed careers within the pharmaceutical industry both in Ireland and internationally.  In addition over 37 Postdoctoral Researchers have worked within the team, many of whom have progressed to careers in industry.

She is Director of the interdisciplinary research centre, the Analytical and Biological Chemistry Research Facility established under PRTLI3 and is currently lead PI from UCC in the SFI Synthesis and Solid State Pharmaceutical Centre, led through University of Limerick (www.sspc.ie ). In addition she jointly leads the Synthesis strand of the SSPC with Prof Pat Guiry, UCD. She has served as Head of the Department of Chemistry (2005-7) and Head of the School of Pharmacy (2009-10). She was elected to the Governing Body of University College Cork in December 2003 and served two terms until December 2011. She was appointed as Vice President for Research and Innovation in January 2011. She was elected a Member of the Royal Irish Academy in 2014. She is an Adjunct Professor in the University of Bergen since 2011.

She is actively engaged nationally in strategic policy development in relation to research, STI policy, the academic industry interface and strategic development of the pharmaceutical industry, including as a member of the Advisory Science Council and the Irish Research Council. She chaired the Irish Research Council for Science Engineering and Technology (IRCSET) in recent years.  She also chaired the Advisory Science Council Task Force on The Role of PhDs in the Smart Economy which reported in December 2009.