ProfessorPatrick Paul Walsh

Patrick Paul Walsh received a Ph.D. in Economics from the London School of Economics in 1994. He is a Government of Ireland, Marie Curie (Brussels), IZA (Bonn), RSA (London), EIIR (Brussels) and REPOA (Tanzania) fellow.  He was elected president of President of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland (SSISI) during 2022 -2025. He is currently a Vice President of the society. SSISI is all-island learned society established in 1847. The Society is a forum for evidence based discussions on public policy between government departments, social partners and academia. Proceedings are published in a open science diamond Journal archived in TCD TARA and listed on the Web of Science   

He is the contactpoint for the UCD’s consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and has organised numerous events at the HLPF,  Partnership Forum, STI Forum, Youth Forum, Oceans Conference, Transforming Education Summit (TES), Mid-Point Review of the SDGs,  Summit of the Future and World Social Summitt.

During 1992-2007 he worked in Trinity College Dublin. He left Trinity College Dublin as a Professor of Economics, College Fellow and Dean of the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences. He was a Visiting Professor at K.U. Leuven during 1997-1999;  a Research Scholar in the Department of Economics, Harvard University, during the academic year 2002-2003. During the academic year 2014-2015 he was a Visiting Senior Research Scholar at the Earth Institute and an Adjunct Professor in the School of International Public Affairs, Columbia University, New York.  During 2014-15 he also worked as a Senior Adviser to UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and participated in the UN Scientific and Technological Community Major Group during the eight months of Inter-Governmental negotiations on the creation of the outcome document “Transforming our  World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”.  He was also involved as a scientist in the creation of the UN GSDR 2014 and 2015 with UN DESA . During 2022-26 he was  on secondment to SDSN as Vice President of Education and Director the SDG Academy. SDSN has been operating since 2012 under the auspices of the Secretary-General of the United Nations. The SDSN mobilizes  academia to induce partnerships at all levels of goverance to implement the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Climate Agreement and Biodiversity Frameworks. Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, University Professor at Columbia University, is the President of the SDSN. The SDSN has offices in New York, Paris and Kuala Lumpur.  

Among other journals he has published in the Review of Economics and Statistics, Economic Journal, Journal of Industrial Economics, Energy Economics, Regional Studies,  Electoral Studies, PluS one ,  Technological Forecasting and Social Change and Sustainable Development.  His current , education, research and polciy outreach is on many aspects of the U.N. 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.

Media enquiries: Ireland and the UN, UN 2030 Agenda, Sustainable Development in Ireland, Education and Training for Sustainable Development