Medicine & Science 
Kevin
Cahill
Humanitarian Healer Born in the Bronx, Dr. Kevin Cahill, whose patients have included Pope John Paul II, President Ronald Reagan and several UN Secretary Generals, began his career in tropical medicine in the slums of Calcutta. Later he worked as a doctor in refugee camps in Somalia and the Sudan and lived with diseases and death on a massive scale. He has been caught behind lines in armed conflicts, and seen senseless slaughter in Beirut and Managua, and all the scarred landscape of modern Africa.
One of the first doctors to predict the famine in Somalia, Dr. Cahill is the founder of the Center for International Health and Co-operation (CIHC) in consultation with United Nations agencies. He is also the creator of International Diploma Course in Humanitarian Assistance (IDCHA), an intensive multidisciplinary training program for professionals and volunteers who work in the field of humanitarian assistance. The course provides both practical skills and insight into the complex needs of refugees, victims of natural disaster and people displaced because of political conflict.
Dr. Cahill, who is the director of the Tropical Disease Center, Lenox Hill Hospital, and chairman of the Department of International Health and Tropical Medicine, Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland, graduated from Fordham University and later received his medical degree from Cornell. He has served, for 28 years, as president general of The American Irish Historical Society, which raises awareness for Irish Americans of their culture, history and ancestry.
Dr. Cahill, whose beloved wife, Katherine, passed away in January, 2004, has five sons and five grandchildren. His son, Chris Cahill, is the editor of The Recorder, the renowned journal of the American Irish Historical Society, and a recently published collection of Irish popular poetry called Gather ’Round Me. 
Michael Lyons
Cancer Researcher Dr. Michael J. Lyons, an adjunct faculty member in the Laboratory of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology at Rockefeller University, was a young scientist at Glasgow University when he discovered the link between smoking and lung cancer. Some 40 years ago, while analyzing tobacco smoke and its possible effects in inducing cancers, Lyons came up with a number of carcinogens in the smoke. In 1959, he published a paper on free radicals in cigarette smoke and that work is still relevant today.
Lyons, who is from Cork City, emigrated to New York City in 1961, and continued his cancer research at Rockefeller University. Focusing on a possible virus in human cancers, Lyons succeeded in isolating the virus that produces mammary tumors in mice. While the human body is much more complex, his findings are still being used in cancer research today. More recently, Lyons and his colleagues have been looking for immunological abnormality in Multiple Sclerosis, and he has published on the possible link between the human virus called Herpes Virus Type 6 and the disease. While autopsy studies on lesions found in the brains of M.S. patients confirmed traces of the virus, the report remains controversial, Lyons told Irish America, “in so far as the virus may be present at the scene of the crime but may not be involved.”
Lyons, a lover of Irish literature and the Irish language, is married to Yvonne, whom he met at Glasgow University. The couple, who live in upstate New York, have four adult children. 
Patricia Grady
Stroke Expert Dr. Patricia Grady is the Director of the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She has been the NINR director since 1995.
Grady was born in Connecticut but raised in Delray Beach, Florida where her parents moved when she was young. She received her bachelor of science in nursing from Georgetown University and completed her graduate work at the University of Maryland where she earned her master’s from the School of Nursing and her doctorate from the School of Medicine.
Grady is an internationally recognized researcher who has written many articles on strokes and their effects. She is also an editorial board member of the major stroke journals. Before coming to NIH in 1988, Grady held several academic positions, including serving concurrently on the faculties of the University of Maryland School of Nursing and School of Medicine. She has been honored with a variety of awards including the NIH merit award, Public Health Service Superior Service Award, and the Centennial Achievement Medal from Georgetown University.
Grady’s father is a first-generation Irish-American whose roots are in County Clare and her mother’s family comes from County Cork. She is very proud of her ancestry and says it has been an instrumental part of her life. Grady explains, “The
philosophy and humor of the Irish have been very important in framing my outlook on life.” 
Robert Murphy
HIV Physician Dr. Robert Murphy helps ease the medical and psychological burdens faced by persons living with HIV disease. He leads the HIV Clinic at Chicago’s Northwestern Memorial Hospital which helps countless patients deal with this devastating disease through outpatient and inpatient care.
In addition to his roles as a practicing physician and professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, Dr. Murphy is currently the Director of Clinical Research in Infectious Diseases and Biodefense. He presently holds the post of John P. Phair Professor of Infectious Diseases.
Murphy’s primary research interest is HIV infection. His research includes drug development of new antiretroviral and anti-hepatitis agents. “We have effective treatments, now the whole issue is finding the safest treatment because treatment is forever,” Dr. Murphy says. He adds that there has been significant advances in drug safety. Just back from a trip to Africa when he spoke to Irish America, he noted that one of the big issues now is our ability to treat people in developing countries. “We are just starting,” he says, “but the World Health Organization’s goal is to have three million under therapy by 2005.”
Dr. Murphy is a member of multiple medical societies and sits on the boards of several non-profit organizations including the American Field Service, an international exchange study program for students and teachers (one of the doctor’s who studied under Murphy, now works at Trinity University in Dublin), the Drucker Family Charitable Trust, and the International AIDS Education Project. He is also a co-founder of the Midwest AIDS Foundation. He has lectured and taught across the country and around the world and is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the 1994 AIDS Physician of the Year by Chicago Magazine.
Dr. Murphy, who grew up in Boston, is married to Andrea Nelson Murphy and has two daughters, Morgan, 24 and Amanda, 21. He has made many trips to Ireland and traces his Irish ancestors back six generations. 
Brian Sullivan
Special Surgeon Dr. Brian Sullivan, a neurosurgeon, is offering new hope to patients with spinal and neck injuries. Sullivan, a member of Anne Arundel Medical Center at John Hopkins Hospital in Maryland, and a partner in the Maryland Neurological Institute, recently received nationwide attention for a new clinical trial involving inserting a cervical disc prosthesis into the space between the patient’s neck vertebra. While traditional treatment fuses the two vertebra together, leaving part of the neck permanently immobile, the new procedure allows the patient to move his neck afterwards, and puts him on track for a speedier, more productive recovery.
“It’s really the future of cervical spine surgery,” says Dr. Sullivan, “The beauty of this device is that it not only repairs the condition, but also permits the patient to move his neck freely.”
Born in Washington, D.C., Sullivan is the grandchild of second-generation Irish immigrants. One grandfather was a Scranton coal miner, the other a political operative in Washington who helped bring the G.I. Bill of Rights to passage. After undergraduate studies at Dickinson College, Sullivan obtained his M.D. from the Georgetown University School of Medicine. His residency in Neurological Surgery at the George Washington University Medical Center included sub-specialized training in skull-base surgery. Dr. Sullivan’s current interests include stereotactic radiosurgery, complex spinal surgery, and he the aforementioned FDA trial of a cervical disc prosthesis that he is leading. His practice is based in Annapolis, Maryland.
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