Professor John R. Higgins is the Professor of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at University College Cork. He is the seventh person to hold this post since the foundation chair in 1849. He is a practicing Obstetrician & Gynaecologist at Cork University Maternity Hospital. He is the current Head of the College of Medicine & Health at UCC. John's subspecialty clinical and research interests are in the area of Maternal Fetal medicine. He has published widely on a range of topics including pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure in pregnancy), folic acid and pregnancy, twin pregnancy, and haemostatic alterations (changes in blood clotting) in pregnancy. In particular, he has explored the relationship between abnormal blood clotting and pregnancy complications including miscarriage, pre-eclampsia, fetal growth restriction, stillbirth and placental abruption. He has co-authored the National Guideline on Prevention of Venous Thrombosis in Pregnancy (2013) and is currently writing the guideline for Treatment of Venous Thrombosis in pregnancy. Research Publications: His most cited paper is the Australasian Consensus Statement on the Management, Treatment and Investigation of Hypertension in Pregnancy (2000). His most cited original research work is a paper looking at the predictive value of 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring in pregnancy. His most widely reported paper was an investigation of the relationship between maternal blood pressure, maternal work during pregnancy and development of pre-eclampsia. This was extensively reported internationally in major media outlets; the media coverage of this paper was itself the subject of a BBC radio documentary. His most recent publication is a randomised trial of the treatment of hyperemesis gravidarum (nausea and vomiting in pregnancy) which demonstrated the benefit of day care treatment rather than hospital admission for this condition. Training: John trained initially in internal med

My personal research interest in the areas of pre-eclampsia and haemostasis in pregnancy were formed as a research fellow at the Rotunda Hospital and at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Trinity College, Dublin. This two year fellowship formed the basis of my MD thesis but also provided me with important exposure to the planning, organisation and management of a large clinical research projects and "hands on" laboratory work in the coagulation laboratory, TCD. This experience highlighted to me the importance of clinicians being exposed to the full range of research methodologies from epidemiology through to bench technologies. To further strengthen my own research training, as part of a perinatal medicine fellowship at the Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne, I went "back to the bench", this time to learn a range of molecular research techniques. My personal research philosophy is that a clinical academic should act as an advocate for the clinical disorders and conditions of relevance to them. Through collaboration, the full repertoire of research methodologies should to be brought to bear on any specific clinical problem. My MD thesis and additional research work simultaneously undertaken on folic catabolism in pregnancy were funded by grants from the HRB and Welcome Trust respectively - grants which I wrote myself. At that time the vast majority of trainees in our specialty seeking to pursue research fellowship and an academic career would have pursued such research options overseas. Building research capacity in Ireland in Obstetrics and Gynaecology has been a long term ambition.On returning to Ireland, to the Chair in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in U.C.C., the opportunity arose to develop a research centre dedicated to women's health and reproduction. Together with colleagues we have ensured that significant capital infrastructure in research has been developed in parallel with the construction of Cork University