Rate My Professor Ailish Hannigan

Ailish Hannigan serves as Head of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics in the Faculty of Science and Engineering and as Professor of Biomedical Statistics at the University of Limerick. She earned her degree in Applied Mathematics and Computing from the University of Limerick's Department of Mathematics and Statistics. Subsequently, she pursued her PhD and postdoctoral research in Biostatistics at University College Cork, supported by funding from Unilever UK. In 1997, she returned to the University of Limerick as a lecturer in Statistics, advancing to Professor of Biomedical Statistics in the School of Medicine in 2012.

Hannigan's research centers on applying statistical methods to routinely collected health data to advance health equity, with particular emphasis on migrant and refugee health, palliative and end-of-life care, and the collection of ethnicity data in health information systems. Her work has attracted funding from Research Ireland and the Health Research Board. Key publications include "Migrant health research in the Republic of Ireland: a scoping review" (BMC Public Health, 2019), "A Method for the Design and Development of Medical or Health Care Information Websites" (Journal of Medical Internet Research, 2013), and a paper on ethnicity data in Ireland's health system published in the International Journal for Equity in Health, which was selected as a Best Paper by the International Medical Informatics Association.

She has garnered significant recognition, including the President’s Research Excellence and Impact Award in the Research Output (Advanced) category in 2024, and an Excellence in Teaching Award with Special Commendation. A Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, she has held leading roles in the Irish Statistical Association. Hannigan is a founding member of the University of Limerick's Health Research Institute and contributes to the Participatory Health Research Unit, a WHO Collaborating Centre. She supervises PhD students in the Research Ireland Centre for Research Training in Foundations of Data Science and previously served on the School of Medicine's management team, aiding in strategic planning and securing its inaugural Athena Swan award. Her extensive publication record, exceeding 250 papers, underscores her influence in biomedical statistics and health research.