Maria Fitzgerald

Maria Fitzgerald (born 1953) FRS is a Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at University College London.

Fitzgerald was educated at Godolphin and Latymer School and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford where she studied Physiology and was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1975 from the University of Oxford. She trained in pain physiology and neuroscience with Patrick David Wall at University College London where she was awarded a PhD in 1978.

Fitzgerald studies the developmental physiology and neurobiology of nociceptor circuits in the brain and spinal cord. Her work has had a major impact on our understanding of how pain perception emerges in early life and how early pain experience can shape pain sensitivity for life. Fitzgerald’s research has changed clinical perception by showing that pain in infancy requires appropriate measurement and treatment and that it should be tailored to the developmental stage of the child.

In recognition of her work Fitzgerald was awarded the Jeffrey Lawson Award for Advocacy in Children's Pain Relief from the American Pain Society, in 2011, the first basic scientist to have received this award. In 2013 she was elected to the Faculty of Pain Medicine of the Royal College of Anaesthetists, for sustained and significant contributions to pain medicine. She was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 2000 and a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2016.