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UCC scholarship recognised as five academics elected to Royal Irish Academy
Five senior academics from University College Cork (UCC) were today elected to the Royal Irish Academy (RIA), the highest academic honour in Ireland.
The RIA today celebrated Admittance Day, when 28 newly elected members were officially admitted to the Academy for their exceptional contributions to the sciences, humanities, and social science, as well as to public service.
The Academy has been honouring Ireland’s leading contributors to the world of learning since its establishment in 1785. There are 688 Members of the Royal Irish Academy (of whom 96 are Honorary or overseas Members). Past Members have included Maria Edgeworth, a pioneer of the modern novel and Nobel laureates: WB Yeats; Ernest Walton, Erwin Schrödinger and Seamus Heaney.
The UCC academics newly elected to the RIA are Professor Holger Claussen, Professor Mary Donnelly, Professor Nuala Finnegan, Professor Paul McSweeney, and Professor Denis O’Mahony. Their elections to the RIA bring the number of UCC academics in the RIA to 55.
Holger Claussen is Head of the Wireless Communications Laboratory at Tyndall National Institute, and Professor of Wireless Communications at University College Cork and Trinity College Dublin. Holger received his Ph.D. degree in signal processing for digital communications from the University of Edinburgh in 2004. He is author of the book Small Cell Networks, published more than 140 journal and conference publications, has 89 granted patent families, and 37 filed patent applications pending. Holger’s research in small cells and self-optimizing networks had a lasting impact on how future wireless networks are architected, deployed and used, not only for legacy 3G/4G networks, but as an essential part of 5G and beyond. At Tyndall, Holger is building research teams in the areas of Radio Frequency, Access, Protocols, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Quantum Systems to invent the future of Wireless Communications.
Speaking about his election, Professor Claussen said: "It is a great honour to be elected as member of the Royal Irish Academy. I am looking forward to contributing to the Academy's objectives to build a more sustainable and inclusive future through knowledge and collaboration, particularly in the areas of Wireless Communications and AI, which will have a profound impact on society in the coming years."
Mary Donnelly is Professor in the School of Law at UCC. Her research focuses on health law and ethics, including capacity law, law and psychiatry, public health, and in consumer protection. Mary’s work has had a significant policy impact on law reform projects in several jurisdictions. She has led and collaborated on research projects funded by the European Commission, the IRCHSS, the Irish Research Council, the National Children's Office, the Irish Hospice Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
In addition to her university work, Mary is strongly committed to public service. Her current public service roles include Chair of the National Research Ethics Committee (CT-C); Joint-Chair of the HSE National Consent Policy Advisory Group; and Joint-Chair of Children’s Health Ireland Clinical Ethics Service.
Commenting on her appointment to the RIA, Professor Donnelly said: "I am greatly honoured by this appointment. I thank my colleagues and students at UCC and my external collaborators for their inspiration and support over many years. I look forward to working within the RIA to help build capabilities to address the many ethical, legal and policy challenges that arise in contemporary Irish society."
Nuala Finnegan is Professor in Spanish and Latin American Studies in the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures and is recognised internationally for ground-breaking research in the field of Mexican cultural studies, with a particular focus on gender. Leading the Centre for Mexican Studies for many years and a dynamic seminar and symposium programme, she has organised multiple international conferences and an extensive cycle of symposia, readings, workshops, and community engagement events.
Her research has been funded by Research Ireland, North-South Research Programme (HEA), EU Commission, and CONACYT (Mexican Research Council) among others. She recently concluded an award-winning North-South Research Programme-funded project which pioneered an interdisciplinary approach that brought case studies of Latin American and Caribbean art practice and feminist collective organising into conversations about women and constitutional futures on the island of Ireland. Her latest book (co-authored with Jane Lavery) Changing Configurations of Day of the Dead during the COVID-19 Pandemic is published in 2025.
Speaking about her admittance to the RIA, Professor Finnegan said: "I am deeply honoured by my election. The all-island dimension so central to the Academy’s mission is strongly present in my current work and I bring a long history of working with partners across the region of Spain and Latin America which I hope can feed into initiatives with the RIA's Youth Academy with its diverse global profile including from Latin America."
Paul McSweeney is Professor of Food Chemistry and Vice-President for Learning and Teaching at UCC. Paul has taught in UCC since 1993 and at various times has served as Head of the School of Food and Nutritional Sciences, Vice-Head and later interim Head of the College of Science, Engineering and Food Science and, since 2018, as Vice-President for Learning and Teaching.
Holding a Personal Chair in Food Chemistry, Paul has had an active research profile in dairy chemistry. He is the co-author or co-editor of 18 books and numerous research papers and reviews. Professor McSweeney is lead editor of three major multi-volume works in his field, including Cheese: Chemistry, Physics and Microbiology, Advanced Dairy Chemistry and the Encyclopedia of Dairy Sciences which have become standard reference works worldwide.
The major thread running through his research is dairy enzymology, including the use of novel coagulants in cheese manufacture, the role of the coagulant in ripening, study of proteolytic enzymes from lactic acid bacteria, investigation of some of the many indigenous enzymes in milk, the role of the equilibrium between casein-bound and soluble calcium on changes to cheese texture and functionality during ripening, the role of the adventitious non-starter microbiota on cheese quality and, more recently, several studies on of lactose and protein standardisation of milk and their effects on the resulting cheese.
Speaking about his election, Professor McSweeney said: "I am honoured and deeply grateful to be the first dairy scientist elected to the Royal Irish Academy. A personal milestone certainly – but it is much more a reflection of the incredible mentors, colleagues, collaborators, and students I have had the privilege to learn from and work with throughout my journey."
Denis O’Mahony is Professor and Consultant Physician in Geriatric and Stroke Medicine at University College Cork and Cork University Hospital. A medicine graduate from UCC in 1985, Denis returned to Cork University Hospital as consultant physician in 1999, appointed senior lecturer in the School of Medicine in 2005, and professor in 2014. Denis has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and has also published two books and numerous book chapters on drug therapy in older people.
Denis’ research is mainly in the area of inappropriate prescribing in older people, particularly focused on the design, validation, and application of STOPP/START criteria for detection of potentially inappropriate medications in individual older patients. STOPP/START is an organised set of explicit prescribing criteria created with the aim of minimising adverse medication in older people with multiple medical conditions (so-called ‘multimorbidity’) resulting in multiple medications or ‘polypharmacy’. In recent years, his research has largely involved organisation and running of national and European Commission-funded clinical trials of interventions based on STOPP/START criteria applied in older multimorbid patients with polypharmacy presenting to hospital with acute illnesses.
Speaking about his admittance to the RIA, Professor O’Mahony said: "It is a great honour to receive membership of the Royal Irish Academy. I hope that in the coming years I can, as an academic geriatrician, provide some useful insights and experience to the RIA and wider Irish society in relation to pharmacotherapeutics in late life in particular and the evolving impact of societal ageing in Ireland in general, this being one of the two greatest existential challenges facing Ireland in the coming decades alongside climate change."
Professor John O’Halloran MRIA, President of UCC, said: "University College Cork is immensely proud to see five staff members elected to the Royal Irish Academy this year. This well-earned recognition is not just a reflection of their accomplishments at the forefront of their disciplines, but of the impact of their work and their contributions to their respective fields. These researchers will enhance the work of the Academy, and I look forward to their continued contributions here at UCC, as we work to secure a sustainable and equitable future."
Professor Pat Guiry, President of the Royal Irish Academy, said: "We are delighted to welcome the newly elected Members of the Royal Irish Academy. Our mission is to recognise and foster academic excellence, and to create, curate and share knowledge for the good of society. Their election today embodies this mission, and their insights and achievements will enrich the work of the Academy as we continue to lead trusted and independent dialogue and analysis across the island for the benefit of all."