Some of our Conference Speakers

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Dr Doug Lowy received his M.D. from New York University School of Medicine in 1968. Between 1970 and 1973, he was a research associate in the Laboratory of Viral Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH. He trained in internal medicine at Stanford University and dermatology at Yale University, and started his laboratory at the NCI in 1975. In addition to his role as chief of the Laboratory of Cellular Oncology, Dr Lowy is also chief of the Basic Research Laboratory and serves as a deputy director for the Center for Cancer Research. He has received the Wallace Rowe Award for Virus Research and has been a member of many scientific advisory boards, grants committees, and editorial boards. Dr Lowy played an integral part in the development of the HPV vaccine against cervical cancer

Dr Lee J Helman received his M.D. from the University of Maryland School of Medicine magna cum laude and was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha. He completed his internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Barnes Hospital Washington University. He began his fellowship training at the National Cancer Institute in 1983, where he has remained. Dr. Helman is the Scientific Director for Clinical Research in the Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute. He is a Professor of Pediatrics and Oncology at the Johns Hopkins University. He was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the American Association of Physicians and is a founding member and past president of the Connective Tissue Oncology Society. He serves on the Board of Directors of and is a Clinical Advisor to The Children’s Inn at NIH. He is a past member of the Board of Directors of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and is on the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Children’s Oncology Group. His research relates to the biology and treatment of pediatric sarcomas.
Dr Curtis C Harris received his BA degree from Kansas University and his MD from Kansas University School of Medicine. His clinical training in Internal Medicine was completed at the University of California at Los Angeles and the National Cancer Institute. In 1981, he was appointed Chief of the Laboratory of Human Carcinogenesis and chief of its Molecular Genetics and Carcinogenesis Section. He also is Clinical Professor of Medicine and Oncology at Georgetown University School of Medicine.
The outstanding scientific contributions of Curtis C Harris, M.D., to the fields of molecular carcinogenesis and molecular epidemiology of human cancer, has placed him at the international forefront. His research on environmental carcinogenesis, cancer risk factors and molecular genetics of human carcinogenesis has significantly impacted the field of cancer risk assessment and our understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of human cancer.
Dr Anna Gavin, Director of the N. Ireland Cancer Registry is a Queen’s University Medical Graduate who has trained in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and in the Northern Ireland Health Services. She is also a Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology in Queen’s University Belfast with roles in teaching and PhD supervision.
Research areas include the role of Prostate Specific Antigen testing in Prostate Cancer Outcomes and the effect of Cancer Services Reforms on Cancer Services Delivery and Patient Outcomes. She has established extensive and unique cancer related datasets in N. Ireland on skin cancer, Prostate Specific Antigen tests and pre-malignant conditions including Barrett’s Oesophagus.
Dr Dermot Hughes was appointed as Medical Director of the Northern Ireland Cancer Network in May 2008. He trained in medicine at the Queens University in Belfast and graduated with the McGrath Clinical Scholarship for Surgery. After internship at the Mater Infirmorum Hospital Belfast, he trained in Diagnostic Pathology in Belfast and The George Washington University Hospital Washington DC. On return to Ireland he was appointed Consultant Histopathologist at Altnagelvin in 1990.
Since that appointment he has held a range of Clinical management posts in Pathology and Diagnostics. For the previous five years he was the Lead Clinician for Cancer Services Western Trust. As Medical Director of NICan his role is to provide Clinical leadership to the strategic planning and development of cancer services. The work is across professional and organisational boundaries. The core component is to develop and monitor network wide policies and standards of cancer care in Northern Ireland. He is an Honorary Senior Lecturer in Pathology with Queens University Belfast and has an active interest in multidisciplinary cancer education for undergraduate medical students. His own academic research is in the field of gastrointestinal pathology with specific reference to coeliac disease. He sits on the Specialty Advisory committee for Histopathology of the Royal Collage of Pathologists.
Mrs Audrey Agnew (BA; MSc; AASW) worked as a social worker in community and hospice settings, specialising in palliative care, for over 10 years. She has worked with the Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Unit since January 2007 and is currently employed as a Research Facilitator (Belfast). She also works as a contract tutor and lecturer for the BSc in Social Work at the School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work at Queen’s University Belfast.
Audrey’s research interests have included exploring the experiences of partners bereaved through cancer, examining preferred place of care for cancer patients, analysing bereavement risk assessment practice and measuring changes in anxiety, depression and quality of life of patients with lung cancer and their caregivers.
Mr Enda Connolly was appointed Chief Executive at the Health Research Board in June 2008. He is responsible for leading a step change in Irish health research. Before joining the HRB, Enda has worked with IDA Ireland for more than 30 years. During this time he held senior management positions for more than 20 years and had a pivotal role in leading change, developing strategy, building stakeholder confi dence and securing significant foreign direct investment.
Since 2001 Enda held the position of Manager for Research, Skills Manufacturing and Business Opportunities, a new division established to drive the implementation of IDA Ireland future strategy. He also took responsibility for Life Sciences and Research, Development and Innovation.
Professor Tom Keane is a graduate of University College Dublin. He completed three years’ postgraduate training at St Vincent’s Hospital and the Adelaide Hospital in Dublin, before leaving Ireland to train in Radiation Oncology at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto. He was appointed as a Consultant Radiation Oncologist in 1978. In 1995 he took up the position of Provincial Radiation Therapy Programme Leader in the British Columbia Cancer Agency in Vancouver, where he was also Head of the Division of Radiation Oncology and Developmental Radiotherapeutics at the University of British Columbia. His areas of expertise include radiation oncology (head and neck, gastrointestinal cancer), RT program planning, health care leadership and process management.
He was a key figure in the overhaul of cancer services in British Columbia & has been drafted in by the HSE on a two year secondment to implement the National Cancer Control Strategy and transform the provision of oncology services in Ireland.
Professor William Watson is Associate Professor of Cancer Biology in the UCD School of Medicine and Medical Science, University College Dublin.
Professor Watson received his PhD degree in Biochemistry from the Department of Biochemistry, University College Cork in 1995 after undertaking his PhD studies in the Department of Surgery, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He then undertook his post-doctoral research in University of Toronto and the Toronto General Hospital in Canada, before returning in 1997, to Ireland as a College Lecturer in the Department of Surgery, Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, University College Dublin and then Senior Lecturer in the UCD School of Medicine and Medical Science from 2004-2007. Apart from his undergraduate and post-graduate teaching responsibilities, he has an active research group in the field of prostate cancer biomarker discovery and therapeutic manipulation. As a translational biologist based in the UCD Conway Institute of Biomolecular and Biomedical Research, he utilises latest technologies in cellular and molecular biology and clinical collaboration through the Prostate Cancer Research Consortium, of which he is Co-Principal investigator and Chair of the Bio-resource management and implementation committee, to expand the understanding of the initiation and progression of prostate cancer.