Patrick Prendergast (academic)
Patrick J. Prendergast FIEI, MRIA, FREng is an engineer, specialised in bioengineering, and held a named professorial chair and other senior roles prior to his serving as the 44th Provost of Trinity College Dublin, the university's chief officer, for the 2011-2021 term. He has published more than 200 papers and volumes, and been cited widely. Early life and education. Born in Enniscorthy, County Wexford, Ireland, Prendergast received his secondary education at St Peter's College, Wexford. He then studied at Trinity College Dublin as an undergraduate, from 1983, completing a degree in Mechanical Engineering in  1987 and a PhD in 1991 titled "Structural Analysis of the Artificial Hip Joint". Academic career. After post-doctoral positions in Bologna, Italy and Nijmegen, the Netherlands, he became a lecturer at Trinity in 1995, and was elected a Fellow of the College in 1998. Together with colleagues from medicine and dentistry, he established the Trinity Centre for Bioengineering in 2002, and was appointed to a Personal Chair in Bioengineering in 2008. He is credited with adding biomechanics as a topic area to Trinity's engineering syllabus, and developing a Masters in Bioengineering. He served as Dean of Graduate Studies  in Trinity from 2004 to 2007, and was appointed Vice-Provost / Chief Academic Officer in 2008. Research. Prendergast has published more than 200 articles and volumes, including on topics around medical engineering, such as tissue mechanobiology, and design of implants. His work has won funding from Science Foundation Ireland, often as Principal Investigator, as well as from the EU and some industry sources. Provostship. In 2011, he was elected as the 44th Provost of Trinity College, for a ten-year term. For external purposes, the post is elaborated to "Provost and President". During his term, Prendergast has focused on the  university's rankings from QS, the Times HES and Shanghai, and on increasing sources of funding. In September 2016 a "Provost's Council" was created, made up of alumni and benefactors of the university, it advises the Provost on how Trinity might advance, for example by financing new projects and initiatives. In November 2016, it was announced that Trinity College Dublin would be joining the League of European Research Universities (LERU). It is the first and only university on the island of Ireland to become a member. In May 2018, Prendergast unveiled plans for a new €60 million Institute  in Engineering, Environment and Emerging Technologies, funded by an Irish philanthropic donation and Government funding. In April 2019, Prendergast gave a wide-ranging interview to the music magazine Hot Press. He was involved in several controversies, most notably over branding and "Take Back Trinity", a student movement to resist commercialisation within the university. Recognition. In 2009 Prendergast was awarded an ScD for published works in Bioengineering. He is a member of the Royal Irish Academy in the Sciences division, and since 2013, an International Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. For his scientific contributions he was made an Honorary  Fellow of the Anatomical Society in 2016, and an Honorary Member of the European Society of Biomechanics in 2018. In popular culture. Prendergast was portrayed by Frank Smith in the 2020 miniseries Normal People.