Profile: Prof. Patrick Cunningham
Profile: Prof. Patrick Cunningham
Patrick Cunningham is Professor of Animal Genetics at Trinity College, Dublin. Originally from Waterford, he graduated from UCD in 1956 with first class honours in Agricultural Science. He went on to obtain a Masters Degree in Animal Nutrition from UCD in 1957, and a PhD in Animal Genetics from Cornell University in the USA in 1962.
In 1962, he began a research career with An Foras Talúntais (now Teagasc), becoming Department Head in 1970 and Deputy Director of Research in 1980. Professor Cunningham’s work in An Foras Talúntais focused mainly on genetic improvement in the Irish cattle population. He pioneered methods of genetic evaluation, introduction and assessment of new breeds and strains, and the economic evaluation of breeding options and strategies. The theoretical work which accompanied this research attracted considerable international attention.
In 1964, Professor Cunningham began to contribute to the newly-established Department of Genetics in TCD, and in 1974, he was appointed Professor of Animal Genetics.
In 1988, he moved to the World Bank as visiting professor at the Economic Development Institute. From 1990 to 1993, he was appointed Director of Animal Production and Health at the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the UN in Rome. During this period also directed the Screwworm Eradication Programme for North Africa, the largest international campaign of biological control ever undertaken.
On his return from the World Bank in 1989, he initiated a new programme of research in TCD. This was based on the use of newly-developed methods of reading DNA to measure genetic diversity and plan livestock improvement in developing countries. The first results of this work, emerging in the early 1990s, rewrote the history of animal domestication, demonstrating for the first time the separate domestication of cattle in India on the one hand and in Africa and Europe on the other. This work has since been expanded by Professor Cunningham and his colleagues to other species including horses, salmon and humans, placing Irish research at the forefront of international work in this area.
Following the BSE crisis in 1996, Professor Cunningham and his colleagues developed a system of DNA traceability for the meat industry, which has been used successfully in Europe for some years. They went on to establish a biotechnology company IdentiGEN, which deploys these technologies in Europe and the USA. Professor Cunningham is the Chairman of IdentiGEN.
Professor Cunningham’s work has been published in some 100 papers in refereed journals, and has twice featured on the cover of Nature.
Professor Cunningham took up his post as Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government in January 2007. Professor Cunningham is responsible, via the Interdepartmental Committee for Science Technology and Innovation (STI), to the Cabinet Sub-Committee on STI, and works with the range of implementation and oversight structures being established to advance the recently-published Strategy for STI (SSTI 2006-2013).