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Dr. Richard O’Kennedy, B.Sc., Ph.D., C. Biol., FRSB., F.I.Biol.I., Dip. F.S., Dip. C.S., Dip. Computing, MRIA, is Vice-President for Research, Development and Innovation at the Qatar Foundation and Vice-President for Research at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Doha, Qatar, previously he was Professor and Scientific Director of the Biomedical Diagnostics Institute at Dublin City University (DCU).

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He is past President of the London International Youth Science Forum, Past President of the Institute of Biology of Ireland, past Chairman/Founder of the Centre for Talented Youth (CTY) in Ireland and represented Ireland and the Royal Irish Academy (RIA) on the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB). In 2018 he was selected as the representative of the IUBMB for Qatar.

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He was a member of the Industrial Research and Commercialisation Committee of Enterprise Ireland, the National Bioethics Council for Ireland, and the Life Sciences and Health Committee of the RIA. Previously he was Vice-President for Teaching and Learning at DCU, Chair of the Management Committee of the Dublin Region Higher Education Alliance (11 Institutions and ca 66,000 students) and Visiting Scientist at M.D. Anderson Cancer Centre at the University of Texas at Houston, where his work was selected as ‘Invention of the Year’.

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He directs the Applied Biochemistry Research Group, internationally recognised for its expertise in antibody generation and immuno/ biosensor assay development, has published extensively (250 peer-reviewed papers, 51 reviews, 40 book chapters, 2 books + 1 in process), has mentored 69 Ph.Ds to completion and has a Google Scholar H-Index of 53 with ca 11,800 citations. He has academic collaborations worldwide, has carried out many collaborations with industry, has 7 patents, multiple licences and many of his reagents/innovations have been licenced and commercialised.

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He is Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of AbYBiotech, is chairman the Scientific Board of Glycoselect, a highly innovative Biotech company, and has acted as reviewer for over 60 journals, is editor of 3 journals and acts as a reviewer for ca 30 international funding bodies.

He has a major interest in innovative approaches to Healthcare and has received many awards for research (Biochemistry Medal of the RIA; President’s Award for Research, 3 Fujitsu Awards for Innovation; Ireland’s Bioscience Lab of the Year, 2014), teaching (President’s award, DCU; Outstanding Masters Programme Award, Graduate Ireland, 2011 and Outstanding Education and Outreach Lab, 2017, and CTY award, 2018).