Professor Niamh Moore-Cherry
Principal, UCD College of Social Sciences and Law
Professor Niamh Moore-Cherry was appointed Dean of Social Sciences and Principal of the College of Social Sciences and Law in February 2024. She is also a Full Professor in the School of Geography and Honorary Professor at the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London. Prior to her current role, Niamh was Deputy Principal in the College of Social Sciences and Law and has previously been Vice-Principal for Teaching and Learning (VPTL) in the College (2018-2021), and was instrumental in leading the response to the Covid-19 pandemic at both College and University level.
Niamh is an internationally recognised inter-disciplinary social science researcher with roots in the academic discipline of geography working specifically at the intersection of urban studies, regional development, governance and sustainability. Her distinctive contribution to knowledge, policy and practice has been in leading and shaping debates on the territorial politics of local, urban and regional development in Ireland, the UK and North America. She founded and leads the (opens in a new window)Cities, Governance and Sustainability research group in UCD which brings together academic, policy and community engaged work. Evidence of the esteem in which she is held include multiple invitations from government departments, state agencies and intergovernmental organisations to provide research and policy advice.
She has significant external leadership and engagement experience as Past President of the Geographical Society of Ireland and she is Chair of the 35th International Geographical Congress to be held in Ireland in August 2024. Previously she has served two terms on the Royal Irish Academy Social Sciences Committee, and two terms on the Geographical and Geosciences Committee. In summer 2022, she was appointed as an independent member of the advisory National Economic and Social Council (NESC) by An Taoiseach. In September 2023, she was invited by the OECD to participate in a high level meeting to inform the shape of the next European Commission Cohesion Funds.