Her older brother, Edmund Valpy Fitzgerald, is an emeritus professor in the Oxford Department of International Development.

Maria was educated at Godolphin and Latymer School and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, where she studied physiology.

[1] She trained in pain physiology and neuroscience with Bruce Lynn and Patrick David Wall at University College London, where she was awarded a PhD in 1978.

[7] Fitzgerald's research has changed clinical perception by showing that pain in infancy requires appropriate measurement and treatment and that it should be tailored to the developmental stage of the child.

[12] "All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License."