Professor Paul Ross

Prof. Paul Ross is Head of Biotechnology at the Teagasc, Moorepark Food Research Centre (MFRC), Teagasc and a Principal Investigator in the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre (APC) at NUI, Cork. Prof. P. Ross graduated with a B.Sc. (Hons.) in Microbiology/Biochemistry in 1984 and with a PhD in Microbiology in 1989, both from NUI, Cork. He took up a post-doctoral fellowship at the Dept. of Biochemistry, Wake Forest University Medical Centre, Winston-Salem, NC, USA. While there, he was promoted to the position of Assistant Professor and was a founding faculty member of their Molecular Genetics Programme. He returned to Ireland in 1993 to take up a Senior Research Officer position at Teagasc, Moorepark to lead the research programme on Dairy Biotechnology. In 1997, he was appointed as Head of the Dairy Quality Department and then further promoted to Senior Principle Research Officer in 2001. Paul is now Head of the Biotechnology Centre at Moorepark. He has built up a close partnership with colleagues at NUI Cork, particularly with Professors Colin Hill and Gerald Fitzgerald at the Microbiology Department and Professor Fergus Shanahan in Medicine (also the director of the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre). His main research interests are in antimicrobial peptides and anti-infectives, probiotics, milk bioactives bacteriocins, probiotics, gut microbiology and functional foods. He has supervised 33 post-graduate students. He also has coordinated or been a (co-principle) investigator on numerous national, EU and National Institute Health (US) grants. Prof. P. Ross currently stands on National (Food Safety Authority of Ireland) and International (EFSA) committees dealing with GMOs and novel foods. He also is a member of the Executive Management Group of the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre, a virtual Centre between University College Cork and Teagasc (~ 50 scientists) devoted to the study of intestinal flora and their impact on human health. Paul was awarded the William C. Haines award by the California Research Council for his contribution to Dairy Science in 2007 and The Enterprise Ireland Commercialization award in 2008. Paul was conferred with a D. Sc. based on published works in Spring 2009.