The 2024 Alumni Awards were held on Friday 18 October 2024. There were nine inspirational award winners from across the University and Dr Patrick Boland, a UCD School of Medicine 1967 graduate, received the award in Health and Agricultural Sciences.
A heartfelt congratulations to Dr Boland on this significant recognition for his remarkable contribution to the field of medicine.
Patrick Boland is a surgeon specialising in Musculoskeletal Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre (MSKCC) New York. Born and raised in Co. Kildare, he graduated from UCD and following training in General and Orthopaedic Surgery in Boston and London he completed a Fellowship at MSKCC where he has worked for 40 years. He is a Clinical Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical School and served as director of the Orthopaedic Fellowship.
Throughout his career he had a special interest in the management of tumours of the sacrum and in 2010 founded the International Sacro-Pelvic Study Society and currently serves as its President. Funding, largely provided through the generosity of the Irish diaspora in New York, allowed Dr Boland to provide opportunities for Irish Medical Graduates to take advantage of educational opportunities in medical and research oncology at MSKCC.
Dr Boland has received several awards in the US, UK and Ireland including honorary fellowships of the RCSI and The Royal College of Physicians in London. Throughout his career, he has co-authored 150 peer-reviewed articles and has been listed among Castle Connolly America’s Top Doctors for the past decade. He considers receiving the Willet F. Whitmore Award, an award by his peers, which recognises Clinical Excellence in “talent, dedication and compassion as a doctor” his greatest honour.
In retirement, Dr Boland hopes to contribute to musculoskeletal cancer services in Ireland.
