Professor Shane Allwright
Professor Shane Allwright was born in Hong Kong but finished her schooling in Dublin and went on to complete a B.A. Mod. (Genetics) in Trinity and then an M.Sc. in Public Health (epidemiology) in University of California at Los Angeles and later, a Ph.D. in Trinity. She returned from UCLA to Trinity to take up a newly created post, lecturer in epidemiology, in the then Department of Social Medicine (now Public Health and Primary Care). She was elected to Fellowship in 2007 and served as Registrar from 2011-2016. She retired in 2016.
Professor Allwright was appointed a Fellow of UK Faculty of Public Health (F.F.P.H.) in 2003 and an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine of Ireland (Hon. F.F.P.H.M.I) in 2011.
Her research interests include: the health effects of active and passive smoking and of alcohol misuse; evaluation of tobacco and alcohol control policies; and prisoner health. She was appointed by the Minister for Health and Children as Chair of the Scientific Review Group which produced the "Report on the health effects of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) in the workplace" that was critical to the introduction of the Irish smokefree workplace legislation. Professor Allwright was lead investigator on a study of the impact of the ‘smoking ban’ on the respiratory health of bar workers in Ireland. She has recently been involved in the evaluation of measures to introduce a smokefree campus in Trinity.
She has served on a variety of national and European public bodies, including appointment by the Minister for Health and Children to the Board of the Office of Tobacco Control (2002-2011); and she has acted as expert witness for the Department of Health (1990) and the Office of Tobacco Control (2003) in court cases taken by the tobacco industry. Since 2016 she has been a Board member of the advocacy group, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH Ireland) and is currently a Member of the Scientific Committee for the World Conference on Tobacco or Health (2019-22).
Professor Shane Allwright was elected as Pro-Chancellor of the University in 2020.