Fergus Shanahan MD, DSc, MRIA, is emeritus professor of medicine at University College Cork and was foundation director of the SFI-funded research centre APC Microbiome Ireland. A clinician-scientist with over forty years’ experience helping patients with chronic inflammatory bowel disease, he has received international awards for his contributions to medical science and the medical humanities. He was the first recipient of the Hektoen International Grand Prix and is a former president of the Irish Society of Gastroenterology. He has published more than 550 scientific papers and numerous books; Fast Facts in Inflammatory Bowel Disease won the BMA Book Award for gastroenterology in 2006. He featured on the “Irish Life Science 50”, a list of the top fifty Irish and Irish-Americans in the life-science industry, and in 2013 Science Foundation Ireland named him as its Researcher of the Year. In 2016, the Royal Irish Academy honoured him with a gold medal for contributions to the life sciences.