Hugh R. Brady

Hugh R. Brady, FRCPI, is President and Chief Officer of University College Dublin. He was one of the two Professors of Medicine and Therapeutics in UCD before becoming the eighth President of the University.

The position of President carries a salary of approximately €205,000 and includes a residence just off the Belfield campus - University Lodge in Greenfield. Dr Brady is married to Dr Yvonne O'Meara, a consultant physician at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Dublin, and they have three children (triplets) Daire, Oisin and Tristan.

Born in Dublin in 1959, Hugh Brady is the son of a bank official.

After finishing at Newbridge College, Hugh won a place in UCD’s former Faculty of Medicine. He earned a degree in pharmacology and worked as a junior hospital doctor for three years. He then moved to Toronto, Canada. A year later, he went to Harvard University in Boston where he directed the renal division of a university affiliate hospital while serving on the academic staff.

At the end of 1996, Brady returned to Ireland with his young family – which by now included triplet sons. At the Mater Hospital where he became a consultant nephrologist, and Professor of Medicine, working as part of a team of just three nephrologists. This small group, moreover, spent half their time on teaching and research activity.

Brady was appointed President at age 43, - the youngest university president in Ireland. He took over the University Presidency in January 2004 succeeding Art Cosgrove who completed his 10 years in office at that stage. Brady has attracted significant controversy since the beginning of his tenure, accused, by some, of turning a venerable academic institution into more of a commercial enterprise. Another view of his position is that he took an institution running steadily into the ground and gave it a new sense of purpose.

External links

* An interview with [http://www.ucd.ie/ucdtoday/hbradyinterviewlongversion.pdf "Hugh Brady"] about the development of University College Dublin