TRINITY TODAY 2018 HONORARY DEGREES Honorary Degrees · TRINITY TODAY 2018 HONORARY DEGREES...

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60 TRINITY TODAY 2018 HONORARY DEGREES Honorary Degrees Between winter 2017 and summer 2018, Trinity awarded 10 honorary degrees to outstanding individuals. Among them were former U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, a pioneering neuroscientist and Ireland’s most capped rugby player. George Kildare Miley (Sc.D.) George Miley is Emeritus Professor of Astronomy at Leiden University. His research area is distant radio galaxies. His distinctions include the Shell Oeuvre Prize, a professorship of the Netherlands Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences, an honorary fellowship of the UK Royal Astronomical Society and an asteroid named after him. In 2012 he received a Dutch knighthood for his services to astronomy and society. In 1997 he initiated the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR), a revolutionary radio telescope, with stations spread over Europe, supporting the development of an all-Ireland facility (i-LOFAR) at Birr Castle. Olivia O’Leary (LL.D.) For more than four decades, Olivia O’Leary has been recognised as one of Ireland’s foremost journalists and broadcasters. Moving from RTÉ to BBC’s Newsnight was a key moment in her career and she became that programme’s first senior female presenter in 1985. She returned to RTÉ to host flagship programmes Today Tonight, Prime Time and Question and Answers, winning awards for these and BBC Radio 4’s Between Ourselves. Also writing for The Irish Times, Olivia O’Leary became established as one of the most formidable reporters in political journalism when the domain was almost exclusively male. Catriona Crowe (Litt.D.) Catriona Crowe was Senior Archivist of the National Archives of Ireland until her retirement in 2016 and has made outstanding contributions to learning, most recently through her initiation and management of the 1911 online census project. Historians of 20th-century Ireland, both in Ireland and abroad, recognise her as the pre-eminent authority on the state’s modern records. Catriona has also been heavily involved in community development activities in the north inner city. She has been a research associate of the Trinity Research Centre for Contemporary Irish History since 2004 and has also provided invaluable advice on the acquisition and care of very important collections of papers donated to College since 2001. Gero Miesenböck (Sc.D.) Gero Miesenböck is Waynflete Professor of Physiology and Director of the Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour at the University of Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Member of the Austrian and German Academies of Science. Gero pioneered the field of research called optogenetics, which allows the function of specific neurons in the intact brain to be remote-controlled with light. He has used optogenetics to investigate mechanisms of sleep, learning and memory, and action choice. These profound contributions to neuroscience have been recognised by numerous awards including the Massry Prize, the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award, the Heinrich Wieland Prize, and The Brain Prize. Brian O’Driscoll (LL.D.) Brian O’Driscoll is the most capped Irish rugby player and the second most capped in rugby union history. Having played 141 test matches, he has scored 46 tries for Ireland, making him the highest try scorer of all time in Irish rugby. He is the eighth-highest try scorer in international rugby union history, and the highest scoring centre of all time. He has been a patron of many charities and in particular has been an ambassador and fundraiser for Temple Street Children’s Hospital. Provost, Dr Patrick Prendergast, George Kildare Miley, Olivia O’Leary, University Chancellor, Dr Mary Robinson, Brian O’Driscoll, Catriona Crowe and Gero Miesenböck Brian O’Driscoll

Transcript of TRINITY TODAY 2018 HONORARY DEGREES Honorary Degrees · TRINITY TODAY 2018 HONORARY DEGREES...

Page 1: TRINITY TODAY 2018 HONORARY DEGREES Honorary Degrees · TRINITY TODAY 2018 HONORARY DEGREES Honorary Degrees Between winter 2017 and summer 2018, Trinity awarded 10 honorary degrees

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TRINITY TODAY 2018 HONORARY DEGREES

Honorary DegreesBetween winter 2017 and summer 2018, Trinity awarded 10 honorary degrees to outstanding individuals. Among them were former U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, a pioneering neuroscientist and Ireland’s most capped rugby player.

George Kildare Miley (Sc.D.)

George Miley is Emeritus Professor of Astronomy at Leiden University. His research area is distant radio galaxies. His distinctions include the Shell Oeuvre Prize, a professorship of the Netherlands Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences, an honorary fellowship of the UK Royal Astronomical Society and an asteroid named after him. In 2012 he received a Dutch knighthood for his services to astronomy and society. In 1997 he initiated the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR), a revolutionary radio telescope, with stations spread over Europe, supporting the development of an all-Ireland facility (i-LOFAR) at Birr Castle.

Olivia O’Leary (LL.D.)

For more than four decades, Olivia O’Leary has been recognised as one of Ireland’s foremost journalists and broadcasters. Moving from RTÉ to BBC’s Newsnight was a key moment in her career and she became that programme’s �rst senior female presenter in 1985. She returned to RTÉ to host �agship programmes Today Tonight, Prime Time and Question and Answers, winning awards for these and BBC Radio 4’s Between Ourselves. Also writing for The Irish Times, Olivia O’Leary became established as one of the most formidable reporters in political journalism when the domain was almost exclusively male.

Catriona Crowe (Litt.D.)

Catriona Crowe was Senior Archivist of the National Archives of Ireland until her retirement in 2016 and has made outstanding contributions to learning, most recently through her initiation and management of the 1911 online census project. Historians of 20th-century Ireland, both in Ireland and abroad, recognise her as the pre-eminent authority on the state’s modern records. Catriona has also been heavily involved in community development activities in the north inner city. She has been a research associate of the Trinity Research Centre for Contemporary Irish History since 2004 and has also provided invaluable advice on the acquisition and care of very important collections of papers donated to College since 2001.

Gero Miesenböck (Sc.D.)

Gero Miesenböck is Wayn�ete Professor of Physiology and Director of the Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour at the University of Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Member of the Austrian and German Academies of Science. Gero pioneered the �eld of research called optogenetics, which allows the function of speci�c neurons in the intact brain to be remote-controlled with light. He has used optogenetics to investigate mechanisms of sleep, learning and memory, and action choice. These profound contributions to neuroscience have been recognised by numerous awards including the Massry Prize, the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award, the Heinrich Wieland Prize, and The Brain Prize.

Brian O’Driscoll (LL.D.)

Brian O’Driscoll is the most capped Irish rugby player and the second most capped in rugby union history. Having played 141 test matches, he has scored 46 tries for Ireland, making him the highest try scorer of all time in Irish rugby. He is the eighth-highest try scorer in international rugby union history, and the highest scoring centre of all time. He has been a patron of many charities and in particular has been an ambassador and fundraiser for Temple Street Children’s Hospital.

Provost, Dr Patrick Prendergast, George Kildare Miley, Olivia O’Leary, University Chancellor, Dr Mary Robinson, Brian O’Driscoll, Catriona Crowe and Gero Miesenböck

Brian O’Driscoll

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HONORARY DEGREES TRINITY TODAY 2018

Hillary Rodham Clinton (LL.D.)

Hillary Clinton has devoted much of her life to public service and has made an enormous contribution to society. During her tenure as Secretary of State of the United States she advocated for an expanded role in global economic issues and for developing relations with non-governmental organisations to act as local advocates for development. She highlighted women’s rights as a way to promote peace, vibrant civil society and long lasting change. Secretary Clinton is a long-time supporter of the Peace Process in Northern Ireland, initially while First Lady of the U.S. and continuing through to the present day.

Paul Drechsler (LL.D.)

Paul Drechsler has built a remarkably successful career in industry and shown outstanding commitment to promoting business as a force for good in society. A Trinity graduate in Engineering, he has used his immense problem-solving and leadership skills to contribute to society to help combat poverty, speci�cally through the promotion of education. He is Chairman of the Board of the charity Teach First which addresses educational disadvantage. He is a tireless supporter of Trinity through his own e�orts and the in�uence of others.

Ann Martha Rowan (M.Litt.)

Ann Rowan served as Archivist in the Irish Architectural Archive for more than 30 years. During this time she single-handedly initiated and completed the Dictionary of Irish Architects (www.dia.ie) (2009), which was an enormous accomplishment and produced “one of the most valuable pieces of research.... in Irish Archival history”, to quote her nominators. It has been described as “transformative” to the history of Irish architecture and has been universally praised for comprehensiveness and impeccable academic standards. This pioneering project is a great success story for the Digital Humanities.

Tony Scott (D.Ed.)

Tony Scott has made enormous contributions to science education in Ireland and internationally. He co-founded the Young Scientist exhibition in 1963 and has been actively involved in its organisation for more than 50 years. It became an example for similar competitions in other countries and in 1989 the European Union Contest for Young Scientists was established. Throughout an academic career in Physics at UCD he was known as an inspirational teacher and his research led to the development of the smoke alarm. He has had a profound e�ect on public awareness of science, giving generations of young students the opportunity to become engaged in, and develop a passion for, science.

James Harris Simons (Sc.D.)

Dr Jim Simons is a renowned mathematician, entrepreneur and philanthropist who has embodied scienti�c excellence throughout his extraordinary career. As a mathematician, his work had a profound in�uence on the development of modern theoretical physics. In 1982, he founded Renaissance Technologies, a private hedge fund investment company based in New York, which by 2015 had $65 billion worth of assets under management. His philanthropic activities are outstanding. In 1994, with his wife, Marilyn, he established the Simons Foundation, which has provided substantial funding to scientists and institutions in the U.S. and abroad.

Secretary Clinton

Back row: Provost, Dr Patrick Prendergast, Paul Drechsler, Ann Rowan and Dr James Simons Front row: Secretary Hillary Clinton, University Chancellor, Dr Mary Robinson, Dr Tony Scott

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