2005 Press Releases
UCC Academics Elected to the Royal Irish Academy
The Royal Irish Academy has elected Tom Cotter, Professor of Biochemistry (UCC) and Éamonn Ó Carragáin, Professor of Old and Middle English (UCC) as Members of the Royal Irish Academy. Election to membership of the Academy is the highest academic honour in Ireland.
The Royal Irish Academy is an all-Ireland, independent, academic body that promotes study and excellence in the sciences, humanities, and social sciences. It is the principal learned society in Ireland and has approximately 412 Members elected in recognition of their academic achievement.
Professor Tom Cotter (UCC) born in Cork 1954 is Professor of Biochemistry at University College, Cork. He received his primary degree in Biochemistry at UCC before working towards a Ph.D. at the University of Oxford, where he was a Pirie-Reid Scholar. Professor Cotter was the first recipient of the Gold Medal presented by The Irish Research Scientists Association in 1996. This was followed by the Boyle Medal in 1999 and the Royal Irish Academy Medal for Biochemistry in 2002. He has published in excess of 140 papers and book chapters. His main focus of research is in understanding the biochemistry of how cells die under normal and various pathological conditions. Professor Cotter has held visiting professorships in San Diego (Fullbright Visiting Professorship), Boston and Munich. He is a past Board Member of Science Foundation Ireland and a current Board Member of Cancer Research Ireland and The Health Research Board. Professor Cotter is also co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of the London listed Biotechnology company: Eirx Therapeutics
Professor Éamonn Ó Carragáin, born in Co. Tipperary in 1942, has been Professor of Old and Middle English at UCC since 1975. His research interests are in Old English literature, early medieval liturgy, the city of Rome and the different ways in which it was imagined by writers, and the relationship between visual art and literature in the Middle Ages. He has published extensively on the Vercelli Book, on the Ruthwell Cross and on Rome and his book, Ritual and the Rood: liturgical images and the Old English poems of the Dream of the Rood Tradition, will be published by the British Library and Toronto University Press in May.
Professor E. Shee Twohig, Department of Archaeology (UCC) and Professor J.J.A. Heffron, Department of Biochemistry (UCC) were re-elected to the Council of the Royal Irish Academy, representing Polite Literature/Antiquities and Science, respectively, at its Meeting on the 16th March.
Those elected are entitled to use the designation 'MRIA' (Member of the Royal Irish Academy) after their name.
Well-known Academy members include: Dr Garret FitzGerald; Nobel Laureate, Seamus Heaney; Mr Dermot Gleeson ; Mr Peter Sutherland; Professor Joe Lee; Professor Ronan Fanning; Mrs Mary Robinson, Professor David McConnell (TCD Geneticist), Professor Richard Kearney; and President Mary McAleese.037MMcS
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