Editor’s note: IASP will be celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2024. Even though the anniversary is still a few years away, it already has us thinking about the history of IASP and the evolution of pain research over the past five decades. So, we are beginning a new series of podcasts that will cover both of those topics, featuring senior leaders in the field who have made major contributions to pain research and care and/or to IASP.
Our second such podcast features pioneering pain researcher and IASP honorary member Maria Fitzgerald, PhD, University College London, UK. The Fitzgerald lab at UCL is internationally recognized for pioneering work in the basic developmental neurobiology of pain and is a world leader in science of pain in infants and children. Dr. Fitzgerald graduated in physiological sciences at Oxford University and studied for a PhD in physiology at UCL. She was awarded a postdoctoral MRC training fellowship to work with Professor Patrick Wall in the Cerebral Functions Group at UCL and remained in that group as a postdoctoral fellow until starting her own research group. She became a professor of Developmental Neurobiology at UCL in 1995. Maria was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2000 and was awarded the Jeffrey Lawson Award for Advocacy in Children's Pain Relief by the American Pain Society, in 2010. She was elected to the Royal Society of Anaesthetists Faculty of Pain Medicine in 2013 and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2016. She is currently and has been a member of numerous strategic and research panels including the Medical Research Council Neurosciences and Mental Health Board, the UK Research Assessment Exercise (REF), and the Council of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
In this podcast, Dr. Fitzgerald speaks with Elisa Clemente, a PhD student at University College London, UK, and a PRF Correspondent, to discuss how she got into the pain field, what it was like to work with Patrick Wall, the science of pain in infants, and more. Listen to the podcast below. (This podcast, along with all previous PRF podcasts, is also available on Spotify here and on Apple Podcasts here.)
Elisa Clemente is a PhD student at University College London, UK.