Pat Monaghan studied at the Universities of Glasgow and Durham, and is currently Regius Professor of Zoology at the University of Glasgow.
She is internationally recognised for her research work on how animals respond to environmental change, for which she has received a number of honours. Her work ranges from the study of animal ecology to molecular biology, and most recently has focussed on how early life conditions influence the rate of ageing. She is interested in conservation biology and has been involved with a number of government and non-governmental conservation bodies.
She is also interested in links between the arts and sciences; for example, she produced an exhibition at the Hunterian Museum on the life and work of Alexander Wilson, a late eighteenth century Scottish radical, and poet who is considered the founding father of American ornithology.