Professor Nicholas Dunne is the Chair of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering/Full Professor of Biomaterials Engineering at DCU. He is also the Executive Director of Biodesign Europe and the Director of the Medical Engineering Research Centre Engineering (MedEng) at DCU. Prof Dunne is a Visiting Research Professor of Biomaterials Engineering in the School of Pharmacy at Queen's University Belfast, and an Adjunct Professor of Biomaterials Engineering in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Trinity College Dublin. Prof Dunne is currently the President of the European Society for Biomaterials and sits on the Board of Directors of the International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering.
He received his PhD in Biomaterials Engineering from Queen’s University Belfast in 1996 following his undergraduate degree in Polymer Science and Technology from the Athlone Institute of Technology. He has authored 260+ peer-reviewed journal publications, 20 book chapters and delivered 500+ research presentations at national and international biomaterials and biomechanics conferences. Prof Dunne’s research has been continuously supported by Research Councils, the European Union, and charity funding bodies and he also attracts significant funding from industrial partners. To date, he has secured and managed significant research funding (in excess of €19m as PI and €19m as Co-PI) from NSF, H2020, EPSRC, MRC, Invest NI, Innovate UK, IRC, SFI, The Royal Academy of Engineering and several major multinational medical device companies.
Professor Dunne’s research programme lies at the interface of materials science, computational modeling, process technology (particularly additive manufacturing) and biology. He leads a multidisciplinary group working at the host/biomaterial interface that has played a leading role in the design, manufacture, in vitro & in vivo validation and translation of multi-functional biomaterials and medical devices for musculoskeletal repair/regeneration, wound-healing and cancer regimens. This research has been developed via a strong, interdisciplinary programme complemented with over-arching institutional and industrial collaborations. Internationally he is recognised as an authority on biomaterials and medical device development for orthopaedic applications, having been awarded an Orthopaedic Research Society/British Orthopaedic Research Society Fellowship and the RAEng/Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellow Award.