In a scientific career initiated with a B.Sc. in Biochemistry from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland and a Ph.D from the Medical Research Council, Institute of Virology, Glasgow; I ventured to Cambridge, England and back to Scotland again for post doctoral research experience in viral pathogenesis before becoming established at UCC. I now teach and examine over 500 undergraduate students every year ( in the second, third and fourth years of their degrees), with responsibility for lecture modules encompassing Virology, Epidemiology and Microbial Pathogenesis. Each year I also host undergraduate fourth year research projects in Virology and Cell Biology for the Microbiology and Biomedical Science B.Sc. degrees (4 to 5) and Postgraduate Projects for the M.Sc. in Molecular Cell Biology and Bio-innovation and M.Sc. Biomedical Science. In addition to other administrative roles, I have chaired the School of Microbiology Teaching, Learrning and Student Experience committee (TLSE) and the Teaching & Curriculum Development committee and have been an active member of the corresponding college-level committees.With research expertise in classical and molecular virology and cell culture, I established a Category II Virus Research Laboratory at UCC, and have been happy to welcome collaborators. In that environment I have trained and supervised 9 PhD and 9 M.Sc. students to graduation. With research projects directed towards dissecting the molecular interplay between viruses and their host cells. Collaboration within and beyond UCC has supported our research in the field of virus vectors for therapeutic intervention in the face of cancer, neurodegeneration and genetic disease. Innovation funding has recently supported our investigation of 3-D culture systems as a platform for virus-vector based production systems.