TWENTY-FOUR of the State’s top academics have been admitted as members of the Royal Irish Academy in recognition of their scholastic achievements. The admissions bring to 2,833 the number of members admitted to the academy, which is its 225th year.
Among those elected for admission were Hugh Brady, president of University College Dublin; Maurice Manning, chancellor of the National University of Ireland; and Stefan Decker of NUI Galway, an early pioneer of the internet who is among the most cited computer scientists in the world.
Other new members include the head of food research at Teagasc, Paul Ross, and Da-Wen Sun of UCD, who is ranked among the top 1 per cent of authors cited in agricultural sciences.
Geophysicist and earthquake expert Alan Jones of the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies and Pól Ó Dochartaigh of the University of Ulster, an expert on the legacy of the Holocaust, have also been included in this year’s membership.
In the field of the sciences the new members are: Mark Bailey (Armagh Observatory); John Boland (Trinity College Dublin); Hugh Brady (president of UCD); Stefan Decker (NUI Galway); Timothy Foster (TCD); Jane Grimson (TCD); Alan Jones (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies); Martin Mathieu (Queen’s University Belfast); Malachy McCann (NUI Maynooth); Eoin O’Reilly (UCC); Paul Ross (UCC) and Da-Wen Sun (UCD).
In the humanities and social sciences, the new members are: Maria Baghramian (UCD); Caoimhín Breathnach (UCD); Prof Mark Thornton Burnett (QUB); James Curl (QUB); Mary Daly (QUB); Caroline Fennell (UCC); Sinisa Malesevic (NUI Galway); Maurice Manning (NUI); Pól Ó Dochartaigh (University of Ulster); Mary O’Dowd (QUB); Karl Whelan (UCD) and James Whiston (TCD).
Geoffrey George Luckhurst was also admitted as an honorary member of the academy. Those who are elected to the academy are entitled to use the designation MRIA after their names.