TILDA is an acronym for ‘The Irish LongituDinal Study on Ageing’, designed to investigate the health, social and economic circumstances of the ageing Irish population, and includes 8,178 participants aged 50 years and over.

Professor Nolan is also a Fulbright Scholar, Howard Fellow and European Research Council (ERC) Fellow.

The Macular Pigment Research Group (www.mprg.ie), led by Professor Nolan, is based at the Vision Research Centre, Carriganore House at WIT’s West Campus and studies the role of nutrition in vision and in the prevention of blindness. To date, Professor Nolan has secured €5 million in research funding in support of these studies and he is currently managing several projects.

Professor Nolan has successfully supervised ten students to MSc, PhD and MD level, and is currently supervising six PhD candidates as part of ongoing projects at the MPRG. He has presented at over 70 international scientific conferences and has published 61 peer-reviewed scientific papers on his area of research (1,001 citations, H index 17). Professor Nolan is also Chair of the international Macular Carotenoids Conference, which is held at Downing College, Cambridge University, UK (www.macularcarotenoids.org).

Professor Nolan and his colleague, Professor Stephen Beatty (Director of MPRG and Institute of Eye Surgery, Whitfield Clinic; and an Adjunct Professor of TCD) have been collaborating with Professor Rose Anne Kenny (the Principal Investigator of the TILDA study) at TCD since 2007. This fruitful collaboration between WIT and TCD has already led to several landmark peer-reviewed publications.

Professor Nolan and Professor Beatty are leading the vision-related component of TILDA.

Professor Nolan said, “This is a great honour for me, my research group, and my family to be recognised in this way. The TILDA project has required a gigantic effort from all the researchers involved, and we are fascinated with the results it is already producing.

“This project is vital to inform healthcare policy makers, as the ageing population continues to represent an ever increasing proportion of the overall population. The increase in life expectancy presents many challenges to society, and only if we understand the socio-economic implications of an ageing society can we hope to accommodate the changing needs of Ireland.”

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