Fr. James Robert C. McConnell (born Dublin 25 February 1915; died 13 February 1999) was an Irish Catholic priest and theoretical physicist. McConnell entered University College Dublin (UCD) in 1932 and graduated in 1936 with a first-class honours master's degree in mathematics. After leaving UCD, McConnell began his study for the priesthood, entering Clonliffe College. He moved to Rome after a year and earned a B.D., B.C.L., and S.T.L. and was ordained in 1939. He was made a Doctor of Mathematical Sciences by the Royal University of Rome (La Sapienza) in 1941. [1]
McConnell was appointed a scholar in the newly founded Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies in 1942. He was appointed Professor of Mathematical Physics in St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, having been awarded a D.Sc. from the National University of Ireland for his research there in 1949. [2] He is best known for research on Rotational Brownian motion, the electric and magnetic properties of matter and the theory of the negative proton (or anti-proton).
McConnell was dean of the Faculty of Science, of Maynooth, from 1957 to 1968, and registrar of the college from 1966 to 1968. [1]
McConnell was the 1986 recipient of the RDS Irish Times Boyle Medal for Scientific Excellence. [3] He was appointed to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in 1990, and honoured with the title of Monsignor by Pope John Paul II in 1991.[ citation needed ]
Sir William Rowan Hamilton MRIA, FRAS was an Irish mathematician, astronomer, and physicist. He was the Andrews Professor of Astronomy at Trinity College Dublin, and Royal Astronomer of Ireland, living at Dunsink Observatory.
The National University of Ireland, Maynooth, commonly known as Maynooth University (MU), is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland in Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland. It was Ireland's youngest university until Technological University Dublin was established in 2019, having been founded by the Universities Act, 1997, from the secular faculties of the now separate St Patrick's College, Maynooth, which was founded in 1795. Maynooth is also the only university town in Ireland, all other universities being based within cities.
St Patrick's Pontifical University, Maynooth, is the "National Seminary for Ireland", and a pontifical university, located in the town of Maynooth, 24 km (15 mi) from Dublin, Ireland.
Third-level education in the Republic of Ireland includes all education after second-level, encompassing higher education in universities and colleges and further education on Post Leaving Certificate (PLC) and other courses. The degree-awarding institutions which can grant awards at all academic levels are the University of Dublin, National University of Ireland, University of Limerick, Dublin City University, Technological University Dublin, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Munster Technological University, Technological University of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest, Atlantic Technological University and South East Technological University, as well as St. Patrick's College, Maynooth. Quality and Qualifications Ireland, a State agency, can grant awards in other institutions directly, or delegate the authority to do so. The King's Inns of Dublin has a limited role in education specialising in the preparation of candidates for the degree of barrister-at-law to practice as barristers. Medical schools in Ireland also have particular regulation. There were seven establishments of higher education within Ireland ranked among the top 500 universities worldwide by the Times Higher Education Supplement in 2023.
James MacCullagh was an Irish mathematician.
Alfred O'Rahilly, KSG was an academic with controversial views on both electromagnetism and religion. He briefly served in politics, as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Cork City, and was later the president of University College Cork. He also became a priest following the death of his wife.
Arthur William Conway FRS was a distinguished Irish mathematician and mathematical physicist who wrote one of the first books on relativity and co-edited two volumes of William Rowan Hamilton's collected works. He also served as President of University College Dublin between 1940 and 1947.
Martin Drennan was an Irish Catholic bishop of the Diocese of Galway and Kilmacduagh and Apostolic Administrator for the Diocese of Kilfenora. Pope Francis accepted his resignation on 29 July 2016.
Dermot Pius Farrell KC*HS is an Irish Roman Catholic prelate who has served as Archbishop of Dublin since 2021.
Robert (Roy) Charles Geary was an Irish statistician and founder of both the Central Statistics Office and the Economic and Social Research Institute. He held degrees from University College Dublin and the Sorbonne. He lectured in mathematics at University College Southampton (1922–23) and in applied economics at Cambridge University (1946–47). He was a statistician in the Department of Industry and Commerce between 1923 and 1957. The National University of Ireland conferred a Doctorate of Science on him in 1938. He was the founding director of the Central Statistics Office (Ireland). He was head of the National Accounts Branch of the United Nations in New York from 1957 to 1960. He was the founding director of the Economic and Social Research Institute where he stayed till his retirement in 1966. He was an honorary fellow of the American Statistical Association and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. In 1981, he won the Boyle Medal. To honour his contributions to social sciences, the UCD Geary Institute for Public Policy was named after him in 2005.
Holy Cross College, located in Clonliffe Road, Drumcondra was founded in 1854 as the Catholic diocesan seminary for Dublin by Cardinal Paul Cullen.
Desmond Connell was an Irish cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church. He was an Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland. Cardinal Connell was one of a number of senior clergy to have been heavily criticised for inaction and for making misleading statements in connection with clerical sex abuse in Dublin. He died on 21 February 2017, aged 90.
Brendan Kevin Patrick Scaife FTCD, MRIA, Boyle Laureate, is an Irish academic engineer and physicist who carried out pioneering work on the theory of dielectrics. Scaife founded the Dielectrics Group in Trinity College Dublin where he is Fellow Emeritus and formerly Professor of Electromagnetism, and previously to that a professor of engineering science.
Rev. William Delany (1835–1924), S.J., LL.D. (R.U.I.), was an Irish Jesuit priest and educationalist, who served as President of University College Dublin.
Professor Patrick Joseph Nolan was an Irish physicist. Like his older brother, physicist John James Nolan, he specialised in atmospheric physics. In 1971, he was awarded the Boyle Medal by the Royal Dublin Society.
Dervilla M. X. Donnelly is an Irish chemist and was Professor of Phytochemistry at University College Dublin. She was the first woman to receive the Cunningham Medal from the Royal Irish Academy and was recognised by WITS with their inaugural Lifetime Achievement award.
Professor Philip Nolan is the Director General of Science Foundation Ireland since January 2022 and has been appointed as the chief executive designate for the new Research and Innovation Ireland agency. He previously served as chair of NPHET's Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group from March 2020 to February 2022, president of Maynooth University from August 2011 to October 2021, deputy president of University College Dublin for academic affairs and registrar from 2004 to 2011, and was a medical and surgical intern at St. Vincent's University Hospital from 1991 to 1992.
Daniel Joseph Kelly O'Connell was a seismologist, astronomer and Jesuit priest who is particularly known for his work in observational astronomy. He worked primarily observing binary star systems, and was involved in photographing the Green Flash. He was also the third president of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
Tony O'Farrell is an Irish mathematician who is Professor Emeritus at Maynooth University. He has been in the Mathematics and Statistics Department there since 1975.