Dr David Courtney
Principal Investigator · Senior Lecturer in Molecular Virology
David has been fascinated by how viruses replicate and manipulate their hosts since early in his career. After a degree in Biomedical Sciences with a year at GlaxoSmithKline and a PhD in molecular biology at Ulster University, he held postdoctoral posts at Duke University and Institut Pasteur, supported by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellowship. He set up The Courtney Group at Queen’s University Belfast in 2021 with an ERC Starting Grant, and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2025. In 2025 he was appointed the UK Ambassador for the European Research Council. He is also a STEM NI Ambassador and a Fellow of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust.
