Alan has been a Consultant Dermatologist in Children’s Health Ireland and St. James’s Hospital, Dublin, since 2002 and Professor of Dermatology, Trinity College Dublin since 2007. He trained in Dermatology and Genetics in Belfast, Great Ormond Street Hospital, London and as a Fulbright Scholar in Children’s Memorial/Northwestern University, Chicago. He has published extensively in high impact journals such as Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Genetics and Nature Reviews Disease Primers; mostly on epithelial genetics, characterisation of the skin barrier, disease mechanisms in, and therapy of, atopic dermatitis. His international awards for research include the Times Higher Education Supplement Research Project of the Year and the Paul Gerson Unna Prize (German Dermatology Society). He has delivered several prize lectureships including the MB Sulzberger (AAD), Parkes-Weber (RCP London), Watson-Smith (RCP Edin) and Dolovich (AAAAI). Alan was a founding director of the International Eczema Council, a global body of experts dedicated to the study and treatment of atopic dermatitis. He is an elected Member of the Royal Irish Academy and the Academia Europaea. He is an Honorary Member of the Société Française de Dermatologie.