Rate My Professor Laoise McNamara

Professor Laoise McNamara serves as Established Professor of Engineering (Biomedical) and Head of the School of Engineering within the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Galway. She earned her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Trinity College Dublin, a first-class honours BEng in Mechanical Engineering from the National University of Ireland Galway, and a Diploma in Statistics. Throughout her career, she has held positions including Personal Professor in Biomedical Engineering from 2016 to 2020, Lecturer from 2014 to 2016, and Science Foundation Ireland Stokes Lecturer from 2009 to 2014 at NUI Galway. Prior roles encompass Lecturer in Mechanobiology and Musculoskeletal Biomechanics at the University of Southampton (2007-2009), fixed-term Lecturer in Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering at NUI Galway (2005-2007), and Postdoctoral Researcher at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York (2004-2005). In 2009, she founded the Mechanobiology and Medical Device Research Group at NUI Galway, now comprising 14 researchers.

The research of Professor McNamara's group employs multidisciplinary experimental and computational methods to investigate bone cell mechanobiology, with a focus on osteoporosis, bone development, and tissue regeneration. Key efforts include characterizing mechanical properties and cell responses in healthy and diseased bone, developing in vitro regeneration strategies, and advancing pre-clinical testing for medical devices through collaborations with Stryker, Boston Scientific, and Medtronic. Her achievements are underscored by prestigious awards such as the Irish Research Council Researcher of the Year (2019), Laureate Award (2018), European Research Council Starting Independent Researcher Award (2011), Science Foundation Ireland Investigator Grant (2015), Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland Silver Medal in Bioengineering (2024), Bone and Joint Decade New Investigator Award from the Orthopaedic Research Society, and Harold B. Frost Young Investigator Award from the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research. Professor McNamara has authored over 100 peer-reviewed articles in leading journals including PNAS, Bone, and the Journal of the Royal Society Interface. She contributes as Platform Lead for the SFI-funded CÚRAM Centre for Research in Medical Devices and reviews for more than 20 international journals.