Biography

Tara Moore is Director of the Biomedical Research Institute and Group leader for Vision Science research in the School of Biomedical Science at Ulster University. Tara graduated from Queen’s University of Belfast in 1994 and in 1997 with a PhD in Immunology and Virology.

She undertook a number of post-doctoral research fellowships within The Royal Group of Hospitals, Belfast; Mount Sinai Hospital, New York; and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School, Boston. Tara’s research fellowship in Boston was under the supervision of Professor Alan Stitt (Queen’s University Belfast) and Professor Tony Adamis (Harvard Medical School, Boston) and during this time her research into the area of Diabetic Retinopathy resulted in a number of highly cited IOVS papers.

On returning to Northern Ireland Tara joined the Ulster University in Coleraine as a Lecturer and over the past 10 years she has built a team of researchers with the one common goal of improving both diagnostics and therapeutics for diseases of the eye which ultimately can result in blindness.

This research is possible due to the very close collaborations forged over the years with many experts in the field and importantly with the Clinicians who see the patients on a daily basis.

Significant publications have been achieved due to a result of the research efforts of Tara and her team of collaborators.

Tara has a successful track record of obtaining grants to fund her research from a number of funding bodies and has secured personally over £1 million for her research activities. She is associate editor and reviewer for a number of eye related journals and consistently publishes her research findings in high quality, peer-reviewed journals including Ophthalmology, IOVS, BJO, PLoS ONE and JCRS. With her growing expertise in this area of personalised medicine for the eye Tara is regularly invited to present at international conferences.

Tara is actively involved in teaching within the University and was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship by the Higher Education Academy for her role in developing online PgDip and MSc courses in Cataract and Refractive Surgery for Optometrists, Ophthalmologists and various eye care specialists.

She was also recently awarded Hononary Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine for her role over the past 8 years in developing online courses for medical legal experts worldwide.

Tara a key driver for the Athena Swan agenda at Ulster University.She is energetic in championing the promotion of women in STEMM through her commitment, with others, to the Athena Swann initiative and Ulster University’s recent achievement of a bronze awardTara also leads the Ulster University wide female mentoring, is an energetic and dynamic role model for The Aurora leadership programme for women.

Tara was honoured to receive the prestigious WISE (Women in to Science & Engineering) Hero Award in London presented by HRH The Princess Royal in recognition of the contribution she makes to health, well being, safety and improving people’s lives through science and technology. 

She was also honoured to win the Women in Business NI Award for Advancing Diversity in the Workplace. This award recognises a business and / or an individual who has championed diversity within the workplace and can demonstrate the benefits of this.

 

Tara Moore, PhD

Director of the Biomedical Sciences Research Institute

 

  • :+44 28 70124577

  • DEPARTMENTUniversity of Ulster
  • COUNTRYUSA