| Citation | Maria Fitzgerald is a world leader in the science of pain, who pioneered the field of the developmental neurobiology of pain. Her studies of acute and chronic pain mechanisms in animal models and human infants have revolutionized our understanding of early pain by overturning a major ‘textbook dogma’, that infants do not feel pain. Furthermore she discovered that early life pain and injury have lifelong consequences, determining adult pain sensitivity. Her contribution, unique in clinical and basic science impact, has been recognised by the Jeffrey Lawson Award (American Pain Society) and election to Fellowship of the Royal Society of Anaesthetists |