Professor Jankowski commences role as Director (Corporate) Chief Research and Innovation Officer at RCSI this month.
RCSI (Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland) has appointed Professor Janusz Jankowski as its new Director (Corporate) Chief Research and Innovation Officer and Deputy Vice Chancellor. In these distinct roles, Professor Jankowski will evolve RCSI’s research and enterprise partnerships locally, nationally and internationally. He will join RCSI on a phased basis from Friday, 16 March.
Professor Jankowski brings proven senior academic and research leadership and management experience from his role as Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN), which included responsibility for research strategy across the entire university. Professor Jankowski has maintained a highly active research profile throughout his career, with an outstanding track record of published articles in high impact journals, including Gastroenterology, Lancet Oncology and Nature Genetics, and he has significant and sustained success in securing competitive research funding.
Welcoming the appointment, Professor Cathal Kelly Chief Executive/ Registrar, RCSI said: ‘I am delighted to announce the appointment of an outstanding candidate of Professor Jankowski’s caliber to the role of Director (Corporate) Chief Research and Innovation Officer and Deputy Vice Chancellor at RCSI. I am confident that his ambitious, enthusiastic and progressive style will support the continued success of RCSI’s research activities’.
‘Professor Jankowski has made important contributions to the development and implementation of institutional research strategy and we look forward to his contribution to the strategic and operational leadership of RCSI as a member of the Senior Management Team. His expertise will continue the delivery and enhancement of RCSI’s Strategy for Excellence in Translational Research 2014 – 2020,’ Professor Kelly concluded.
Professor Jankowski commented: ‘The attraction to come to RCSI was based on three key aspects: the superb academic trajectory of the College already in the top 250 universities in the world; an ambitious team ready for growth across the education-research-innovation interface; and most of all the superb students from around the world’.
Prior to his role at the University of Central Lancashire, Professor Jankowski held senior academic and research leadership roles at the Universities of Birmingham, Leicester, Oxford and Plymouth. Professor Jankowski has been full professor since 2001, when he was appointed Professor of Gastrointestinal Research at the University of Birmingham. He is internationally recognised for his research on oesophageal cancer, including basic, translational and clinical trials research. Additionally, Professor Jankowski’s international reputation and standing is evident from his role as Chair of the EU TRANSCAN-2 funding committee, his many international Keynote and Plenary speaker invitations, especially the Sir Avery Jones Research Medal (1994) and the Sir James Black Senior Fellowship (2006).
Professor Jankowski’s appointment follows the recent retirement of Professor Ray Stallings who held the role of Director of Research at RCSI since 2012.
RCSI is ranked among the top 250 (top 2%) of universities worldwide in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings (2018) and its research is ranked first in Ireland for citations. It is an international not-for-profit health sciences institution, with its headquarters in Dublin, focused on education and research to drive improvements in human health worldwide. RCSI is a signatory of the Athena SWAN Charter.
For further information on RCSI’s Strategy for Excellence in Translational Research 2014 – 2020 visit rcsi.ie/research