'A truly exciting time' - First president of Ireland's newest university named

The name of the first president of South East Technological University (SETU) has been announced. 

The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Simon Harris, today (Thursday April 28) confirmed the designation of Professor Veronica Campbell as the inaugural president of SETU, the amalgamation of Institutes of Technology in Carlow and Waterford. 

The appointment will now be put forward for ratification by the new university's governing body at its first meeting on establishment day, May 1 2022. 

Chairperson Designate of the Governing Body of SETU, Professor Patrick Prendergast warmly welcomed the news. 

He said, "This is a truly exciting time for the south east of Ireland. This Sunday we will have achieved our long-standing ambition to deliver a university for and of the region. And today I’m particularly delighted to welcome Professor Veronica Campbell as first president of what I know will be an ambitious and innovative technological university.

"Professor Campbell comes to us with years of experience in senior academic and management roles in higher education in Ireland and abroad. She will bring an energy, vitality and leadership to the role and drive our ambition to be a leading European technological university.”

Professor Veronica Campbell holds a degree in Pharmacology from the University of Edinburgh and a PhD in Neuropharmacology from the University of London. She was awarded a Health Research Board post-doctoral fellowship in 1996 and was appointed to an academic post in the Department of Physiology, School of Medicine at Trinity College Dublin in 1998.

Professor Campbell has extensive undergraduate and postgraduate teaching experience and a productive research record in cell biology, pharmacology and tissue engineering. 

She has held several senior leadership roles in Trinity College, including Dean of Graduate Studies and Bursar & Director of Strategic Innovation; in the latter role from 2015 to 2021 Prof Campbell oversaw the commencement of a €300m capital project portfolio in the university. 

The professor currently serves on the Board of the Atlantic Institute based in Oxford University, and was the inaugural chair of the Global Brain Health Institute of Trinity College and UCSF. She is a former President of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland (Biomedical Sciences Section). 

This Sunday (May 1), SETU will be formally established.

The new university will officially celebrate its launch in September in a ceremony to mark its first academic year and the first intake of university students presided over by the new president.