Professor John Kennedy

Consultant Medical Oncologist, Medical Director, TSJCI

Professor Kennedy is one of the country's leading medical oncologists (retired). He is Clinical Professor of Oncology in Trinity College Dublin and currently holds the position of Co-Director of the Trinity St James’s Cancer Institute. 

He is a past Chairman of the Medical Board of St James’s Hospital and a past member of the boards of both St James’s Hospital and of St Lukes Hospital in Rathgar.  He is a past Chairman of the Irish Clinical Oncology Research Group (ICORG), past Chairman of the Irish Society for Medical Oncology, and past Chairman of the board of the Irish Cancer Society. 

He chaired the Minister for Health’s Cancer Strategy Advisory Committee from 2015 to 2017. 

He led the Minister for Health’s Cancer Strategy Advisory Committee from 2015 to 2017. He has published over 150 scientific papers in the medical literature and he currently serves on the board of Cancer Trials Ireland.

  • Professor Kennedy holds a Bachelor of Medicine, a Bachelor of Surgery and a Bachelor of Obstetrics from the University of Dublin, Trinity College where he was awarded a First Class Honours degree and won numerous prizes including the university Gold Medal in 1983.

    His training took him from Ireland to the United States where he began a Clinical Fellowship in Oncology at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in 1987 and where he ultimately rose to the position of Associate Professor of Oncology.  While at Johns Hopkins he was twice conferred with the Outstanding Teacher award by the Osler Housestaff and was principal investigator on numerous research grants from the National Cancer Institute, American Cancer Society and the Dept. of Defence. 

    He returned to Ireland in 1998.

  • Professor Kennedy's major research interest is in breast cancer