DCU Alumni Awardee Kevin McGuigan

Kevin McGuigan is Professor of Medical Physics in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and Director of the RCSI Solar Disinfection Research Group. Kevin has an illustrious track record as a teacher and as a research leader making a real difference to population health on a global scale.

A native of Drogheda, Co. Louth, on graduating from DCU with a PhD in Physics in 1989 Kevin joined the DCU School of Physics as an assistant lecturer before securing a permanent position in RCSI in 1991. 

His research focuses on developing sustainable accessible water treatments, especially using solar technology, for communities in low-to-medium income countries without access to treated water supplies. He specialises in running field studies to evaluate these technologies and has conducted health impact assessments in Ethiopia, Malawi, Uganda, Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Cambodia. He has also coordinated several large scale EU funded interdisciplinary projects across Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. 

His current SURG-Water Project, funded under the Research Ireland SDG Prize Fund, is focused on improving access to safe water for maternity wards and delivery rooms in rural healthcare facilities in Southern Malawi. 

In 2013, Prof. McGuigan was the recipient of the first Higher Doctorate in Science (DSc) awarded by DCU. In 2019 he was awarded the UNESCO-Equatorial Guinea International Prize Laureate for Research in the Life Sciences. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (FInstP), and has published over 100 referred articles in peer-reviewed journals.

DSc Higher Doctorate, 2013

PhD Physics, Semiconductor Spectroscopy, 1989