RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ireland 

Sam McConkey graduated from the University of Dublin, Trinity College in 1989, followed by membership of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland and diplomas in Child Health and Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. From Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, he was awarded a Master of Arts in Mathematics and Statistics in 2000 and from Trinity College, a Doctor of Medicine in 2002. During the 1990s and early 2000s, Sam completed postgraduate training in Infectious Disease, Tropical Medicine and General Internal Medicine, following which he did clinical vaccine trials in Oxford University, gained a Wellcome Fellowship with Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, Oxford from where he was seconded to the Medical Research Council Laboratories in The Gambia. Samuel McConkey is a Deputy Dean, Associate Professor and has held the position of Head of Department of International Health and Tropical Medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland since 2006.  He has written over 60 publications in peer-reviewed publications. He has served on several national and international boards and committees.

Sam McConkey’s areas of expertise can be summarised as follows: vaccines, clinical trials, HIV, Hepatitis B, HTLV1, Malaria, Tuberculosis, international health and social science research. He spoke out strongly in national and international media about SARS CoV2 and Ebola starting early well before the media and political leaders realised their significance, and has continued this role of public-facing academic. He is a physician at three busy hospitals, and lead for sexual health in the north east.

Eoghan de Barra received his medical degree from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin and proceeded to gain specialist training in Infectious Diseases and General Medicine in Ireland and South Africa. 

In 2011 he took up a post as Research Fellow and Lecturer in the department of Tropical Medicine and International Health at the RCSI and conducted malaria vaccine research work in Dublin and at the University of Oxford, UK. 

In 2014 he went to Imperial College NHS Trust, London as a Consultant in Infectious Diseases and General Internal Medicine, where he was the clinical lead for the OPAT programme, a site lead for Neuro-Infection, a regional lead for TB including large numbers of MDR TB and led the Trust’s Ebola response, as well as directing and advising Infection Prevention and Control practitioners as part of an integrated Clinical Infection unit. He served as a supervisor for joint Microbiology, Virology, Infectious Diseases and General Medicine trainees on RCPath and JRCPTB schemes, and for Advanced Nurse Practitioner and Pharmacist independent prescribing candidates. 

In 2017 he returned to Dublin taking up a post as Consultant in Infectious Diseases and Senior Lecturer at Beaumont Hospital / RCSI.  Research interests include Tropical Medicine, vaccine development, TB, resource limited acute care, OPAT and antimicrobial prescribing.

Professor Karina Butler is UCD Clinical Professor of Paediatrics, Consultant Paediatrician and Infectious Diseases Specialist at Children’s Health Ireland at Crumlin and Temple Street Children's University Hospital. A former president of the Infectious Diseases Society of Ireland (2018-2020), she chairs the National Immunisation Advisory Committee of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland and is Chair of PENTA Foundation UK, an independent charity that seeks to promote research into infectious disease in children as part of the wider Penta Network. Appointed to the National Public Health Emergency Team in late 2020, she is also a member of the COVID-19 Expert Advisory Group of the Health Information and Quality Authority. She has served on the national tuberculosis and scientific advisory committees of the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, the steering committee member of the Paediatric European Network for Treatment of AIDS and Infectious Diseases (PENTA-ID). Her clinical research has focussed on prevention and management of HIV infection in children and adolescents. As Chair of the National Immunisation Advisory Committee she is committed to the prevention of infectious diseases using safe and effective vaccines, thus protecting the health of our population.

Dr. Eoin Feeney graduated in medicine from Trinity College Dublin in 2002. He completed his basic specialist training through the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital training scheme, spending six months as a resident at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. In 2012 he completed Higher Specialist Training in Infectious Diseases and General Internal Medicine through the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland, and in the same year was awarded a PhD examining the metabolic complications of HIV infection from University College Dublin. From 2012-2014 he undertook a Fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. From 2013-2014 he was an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He was awarded the Massachusetts Infectious Diseases Society Edward H. Kass Award for Clinical Excellence in 2014. His areas of research at MGH/BWH were the mechanisms of accelerated fibrosis in HIV / hepatitis C virus co-infection. In 2014 he returned to Ireland as a Consultant Physician in Infectious Diseases and established the Infectious Diseases department at St. Vincent’s University Hospital and St. Vincent’s Private Hospital.

Dr. Catherine Fleming, National Speciality Director of Infectious Diseases, Royal College of Physicians of Ireland Dr Catherine Fleming graduated from University College Dublin in 1990. She trained in Infectious Diseases at Boston Medical Centre, Boston, Massachusetts, and received a Masters in Public Health from Harvard University. She was appointed Assistant Professor at Boston University in 2000. Dr Fleming took up her appointment as Consultant in Infectious Disease in Galway University Hospital in 2004 and she is the lead Infectious Disease physician for the Saolta Hospital group. She is the National Specialty Director of Infectious Diseases in Ireland. In addition to other responsibilities she is currently a Member of the Steering Group for a National Sexual Health Strategy and is a member of the National Training Body Committee.

MD, FRCPI, FRCP, FIDSA, FFSEM

Professor Mary Horgan is President of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, former Dean of the School of Medicine at UCC and Consultant Physician in Infectious Diseases at Cork University Hospital. She graduated from University College Dublin in 1986.

Professor Horgan undertook a Fellowship in Infectious Diseases in Washington University Medical School, St Louis, USA and was appointed Assistant Professor of Medicine in 1995. She returned to Ireland in 1997 to take up the position of Consultant in Infectious Diseases.

Professor Horgan was appointed as Dean of the Medical School in UCC in 2013 and held the position for a 4-year term.

Professor Horgan has been a Ministerial appointment of number of Health service-related National Boards including HPRA and IBTS. She was appointed Chair of the National Research Ethics Committee on COVID-19, is a member of the COVID-19 Rapid Testing Group reporting to the Minister for Health and a member of the group reporting on the strategy for Whole Genomic Sequencing of Variants. She is on the GAA’s expert Advisory Committee on COVID19 and worked with World Rugby on Return to Play strategy. She has worked on the frontline at Cork University Hospital during each wave of the pandemic.

She was awarded the UCD Alumni award for health in 2019.

Professor Horgan was elected as President of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, the first women to hold this position since the College’s foundation in 1654.

Dr Jackson is a specialist in Infectious Diseases and General Medicine working as a consultant physician in Cork University Hospital and the Mercy University Hospital in Cork City, Ireland. He graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 2001. His specialist training included 2 years in Malawi running clinical trials in the area of Cryptococcal meningitis for which he was awarded his MD, and a further year of clinical fellowship in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was awarded his Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from the Gorgas Institute in 2005.  

In Cork, as well as general medicine commitments, he is the clinical lead for HIV, running a clinic with over 600 patients receiving antiretrovirals.  He is also chairperson of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Committees in Cork University Hospital and the Mercy University Hospital, and is the clinical lead for Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy (OPAT) for the southern region of Ireland.  He provides a consultation service for inpatients with respect to general infectious diseases, HIV, antimicrobial management, fever of unknown origin, tropical medicine. His ongoing lecturing commitments are through University College Cork. He has active research interests with multi-centre collaborations in many areas including HIV, Hepatitis B, antimicrobial stewardship, COVID-19.

MBBCh, MD, MPH, FRCPI

Dr Eavan Muldoon is a consultant in Infectious Diseases in the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital and the National Clinical Lead for OPAT and CIT programmes in the HSE.

Dr Muldoon graduated from University College Dublin (2002) and completed Infectious Diseases Specialist registrar training in Ireland, completing a Doctor of Medicine (Trinity College Dublin - 2011) during that time. Following her training in Ireland, she completed a fellowship in Infectious Diseases and Transplant Infectious Diseases, in Tufts Medical Center Boston (2010-2013). She was the inaugural recipient of the Frank P. Tally Fellowship in Infectious Diseases in Tufts Medical Center, and was awarded the Kass award for clinical excellence from the Massachusetts Infectious Diseases Society. She also completed a Masters of Public Health in Tufts University Boston (2013).

On completion of fellowship, Dr Muldoon joined the team in the National Aspergillosis Centre in Manchester, where she worked as a Consultant in Infectious Diseases, and Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer with the University of Manchester for four years. In April 2017 she returned to Dublin to take up a post as Consultant in Infectious Diseases in the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital. In 2019 she was appointed as National Clinical Lead for OPAT and CIT programmes in the HSE.

She has a keen interest in clinical mycology, antimicrobial stewardship and outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT).