Among those members elected for admission from UCC were Professors Paul Ross, internationally recognised food scientist, Eoin O’Reilly, respected physicist and Professor Caroline Fennell of the College of Business and Law. They were among only 24 academics on the island of Ireland to achieve this highest academic distinction.

Professor Nicholas Canny, President of the RIA, said that this group "is as accomplished and as academically diverse as any cohort elected since our founding members signed the roll in 1785".

He also said that the promotion of research within universities must be related to, and integrated with, their teaching mission. Professor Canny went on to note that if Government funding to support research is predicated to occur only where this funding can "be seen to promote innovation, enterprise and immediate job creation, it would be better [to enforce such a model] in stand-alone research institutes rather than through cross-subsidisation from the teaching mission of higher-research institutions."

Paul Ross has earned an international reputation as scientist in the areas of food microbiology, functional foods and genomics. In a 25 year research career he has published over 250 peer-reviewed papers. Ross is head of Food Research at Teagasc and has lead the development of the biotechnology programme at Moorepark and the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre (APC) at UCC.

Eoin O’Reilly is a research professor in Physics at the Tyndall National Institute, UCC. He is widely recognised for his pioneering ideas and analysis of semiconductor laser and optical devices. His ideas have had significant impact in optical communication and wider photonic applications. O’Reilly has directed a world-leading group whose interests span from fundamental semiconductor physics through to the engineering of semiconductor lasers.

Caroline Fennell is a professor of law at the College of Business and Law at UCC and a qualified barrister. She is the Chairperson of the Irish Research Council for Arts, Humanities and Social Science (IRCHSS) and is a consultant for the Law of Evidence for the Law Society of Ireland. Professor Fennell has published widely in the area of criminal justice and the law of evidence. Previously, she has held the positions of both Dean and Head of the Law Faculty at UCC. Her publications include Law of Evidence in Ireland, 3rd ed (Bloomsbury Professional 2009); Labour Law in Ireland with I. Lynch (Gill and Macmillan, 1993); Crime and Crisis in Ireland; Justice by Illusion (Cork University Press, 1993).

In addition, Professor Roger Whatmore, CEO, Tyndall National Institute, UCC was recently conferred as a Fellow of the Irish Academy of Engineering for his contribution to Science and Engineering in Ireland.

About the Royal Irish Academy
The Academy now has 441 Members across the disciplines of the sciences, humanities and social sciences and in its entire history only 2,833 people have been Members. Among the membership of the Academy are many of Ireland’s leading scholars, including: Professor Seamus Heaney, Nobel Laureate; Mary McAleese, President of Ireland; Luke O’Neill, Boyle Medal Winner and James McGuire, editor of the Dictionary of Irish Biography. Other well-known members of the Academy have included Ernest Walton, Nobel prize-winning physicist; Eoin MacNeill, politician and historian, James Gandon Architect and Francis Beaufort, the originator of the Beaufort wind scale.

Competition for election to membership is keen as it is the premiere academic honour in Ireland and a public recognition of the highest academic achievement. Those elected are entitled to use the designation ‘MRIA’ after their name.