PHILADELPHIA - Garret A. FitzGerald, MD, FRS, director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics and chair of the department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has been elected to the Royal Irish Academy.
Election to the Academy, which has occurred annually since 1785, is the highest academic honor in Ireland. Those elected are entitled to use the designation ‘MRIA’ after their name. There are now 497 members of the Academy, in disciplines from the sciences, humanities, and social sciences.
FitzGerald, along with 21 other new members, including Nobel laureate Paul Nurse, past president of the Royal Society and Chief Executive and director of the Francis Crick Institute, and Louise Richardson, vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, were inducted as part of the annual admittance day ceremony in Dublin.
The Academy champions Irish academic research, and one of its principal roles is to identify and recognize Ireland’s world-class researchers. The Academy draws its membership from the whole island of Ireland, both North and South. Membership is awarded to persons who have attained the highest distinction by their unique contributions to education and research.
FitzGerald is recognized for his lifetime contributions to the study of cardiovascular health and in particular the implications of pain medicines on cardiac systems. He was instrumental in the discoveries relating to the use of low-dose aspirin in preventing cardiac disease. His team was the first to predict and then mechanistically explain the cardiovascular hazard from NSAIDs and his laboratory was also the first to discover a molecular clock in the cardiovascular system. Among his many accolades, he has been awarded both the Irish Times/RDS Boyle Medal and the 2013 Grand Prix Scientifique -- considered the world's most prestigious honor for cardiovascular research.
The Academy has 579 Members, of whom 81 are Honorary Members, almost equally divided between the sciences and the humanities. Each Member is formally admitted in a special ceremony, during which they subscribe to the Member’s Declaration of Obligations and sign the Roll Book of Members. FitzGerald was inducted as an Honorary Member, which is bestowed to those who have made outstanding contributions to their academic discipline, but reside outside the island of Ireland.
Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, excellence in patient care, and community service. The organization consists of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Penn’s Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school.
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