Five UCD academics enrolled as members of Royal Irish Academy
Wednesday, 30 May, 2012
(l-r): UCD Professor of Animal Reproduction, Patrick Lonergan; UCD Professor of Meteorology, Peter Lynch; President of the RIA, Professor Luke Drury; UCD Professor of History, Robert Gerwarth; and UCD Professor of Political Science, Richard Sinnott. UCD Professor of Politics, John Coakley was enrolled in absentia.
The Royal Irish Academy (RIA) has recognised the internationally renowned accomplishments of five UCD scholars by enrolling them as members of the academy.
At the enrolment event, the President of the Royal Irish Academy, Professor Luke Drury, urged the government to make greater use of the resources available to it in the academic community, so that it can develop new and creative solutions and avoid the danger of ‘group think’:
“At a time when trust in public institutions has been greatly undermined, we need reassurance that government is receiving good advice on what it should do and how it should do it.”
“The State can, and should, turn to the academic community for expert advice, at far less cost than commissioning expensive consultants, and thereby support genuinely independent and occasionally critical voices,” he said.
The UCD scholars newly enrolled to the Royal Irish Academy include:
- John Coakley, Professor of Politics at the UCD School of Politics and International Relations, University College Dublin, and founding director of the Institute for British Irish Studies. A former Secretary General of the International Political Science Association, he specialises in comparative politics, focusing in particular on the study of nationalism and ethnic conflict. He has published extensively in these areas, and in the analysis of Irish politics from a comparative perspective.
- Robert Gerwarth, Professor of History at the UCD School of History and Archives, and Director of the UCD Centre for War Studies is recognised internationally for his research on twentieth-century Germany and the trans-national history of violence in the aftermath of the Great War, for which he was awarded a major European Research Council grant. A graduate of Humboldt University and Oxford, he has held visiting positions at Harvard, Bielefeld and the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.
- Patrick Lonergan, Professor of Animal Reproduction at the UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science, University College Dublin. He leads an internationally recognised group focused on the mechanisms underlying oocyte and embryo development, and maternal-embryonic communication during the establishment of pregnancy in cattle. He has a large volume of refereed research publications, has served on the Boards of several societies in his area and is Past President of the International Embryo Transfer Society.
- Peter Lynch, Professor of Meteorology at the UCD School of Mathematical Sciences, University College Dublin. He is a world expert in dynamic meteorology and numerical weather prediction. His notable achievements include his development of a mathematical technique for numerically integrating the atmospheric governing equations based on the Laplace Transform, his digital filtering technique for eliminating noise from weather prediction models, and his theoretical studies of wave triads in fluids.
- Richard Sinnott, Professor of Political Science at the UCD School of Politics and International Relations, University College Dublin. His research focuses on comparative and Irish public opinion and political behaviour. His publications include Irish Voters Decide (MUP, 1995) and, as co-author, People and Parliament in the European Union (OUP, 1998). He has held research fellowships at Harvard, Oxford, Waseda and the EUI and has raised research funding from major European programmes, most recently from the European Science Foundation.
At the RIA enrolment event on 25 May 2012, a total of 22 of Ireland’s leading scholars were enrolled as new members of the Royal Irish Academy.
For 227 years, membership of the Royal Irish Academy has been keenly competed for, as it is the highest academic honour in Ireland and a public recognition of academic achievement.
There are now 466 members of the Academy, in disciplines from the sciences, humanities and social sciences. Those elected are entitled to use the designation ‘MRIA’ after their name.
For more see: www.ria.ie
