Research pioneer to head medical group

AN IRISH pioneer in cancer research has been elected head of a prestigious European medical association.

Professor Gerald O’Sullivan, the director of the Cork Cancer Research Centre, is the new president of the European Surgical Association.

Prof O’Sullivan, who is immediate past president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, takes over from Prof Janos Kiss of Hungary.

The association was founded in 1993 and is one of the world’s most prestigious surgical organisations.

Its members include prominent surgeons from Europe’s leading academic medical institutions.

A UCC graduate, Prof O’Sullivan was appointed consultant surgeon at the Mercy University Hospital, Cork, in 1985 following surgical residencies in Ireland and America.

He has been a Fellow of the RCSI since 1980 and was elected a member of its council in 1998. He is an honorary fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Surgeons Glasgow.

A renowned surgeon and researcher, he was appointed chairman of the department of surgery at UCC in 1999. Today he is director of the cancer research centre, which investigates new ways of preventing the development of, and controlling, the spread of cancer.

Prof O’Sullivan has pioneered the development of three new treatments for cancer from the laboratory through to early clinical trial. He has also been involved in the development of several new surgical techniques for gastrointestinal surgery.