Prof. Fergal O’Brien currently heads one the largest tissue engineering research groups in Europe (over 30 researchers). He is a graduate in mechanical engineering and his PhD research was in the area of bone mechanobiology (both from Trinity College Dublin). He subsequently carried out postdoctoral research in orthopaedic tissue engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in collaboration with Harvard Medical School before his appointment, in 2003, as a Lecturer in Anatomy in RCSI. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer (2006) and Associate Professor (2007). He holds an adjunct appointment as Associate Professor in Bioengineering in TCD. Since his faculty appointment, he has acquired over €8.7 million in grant funding, has published over 100 journal articles, book chapters and editorials in peer-reviewed international journals and books, filed 4 patents and supervised 12 PhD students to completion . He has been awarded a number of scientific honours including a Fulbright Scholarship (2001), New Investigator Recognition Award by the Orthopaedic Research Society (2002), Science Foundation Ireland, President of Ireland Young Researcher Award (2004), Engineers Ireland Chartered Engineer of the Year (2005) and in 2009, a European Research Council (ERC) Investigator Award (€2 million). He is a reviewer for over 40 scientific journals and a grant reviewer for agencies in Europe, Australia, Canada and USA . He is currently Treasurer of the Biomedical Division of Engineers Ireland, Editorial Consultant of Journal of Biomechanics and Subject Editor (Tissue Engineering) for the Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials. In September 2011, he participated in the 4th IAP Young Scientists Conference held in Dalian, China in conjunction with the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting of the New Champions, September 2011.