Professor Petros Florides is Inaugurated as New Pro-Chancellor

Nov 02, 2010

Leading academic Professor Petros Florides was inaugurated as a Pro-Chancellor of the University of Dublin, Trinity College, recently at a special ceremony in the Provost’s House.  In becoming a Pro-Chancellor, Professor Florides will be a member of the University Senate and may deputise for the University Chancellor, Dr Mary Robinson.  The Chancellor and Pro-Chancellors play a fundamental role in the University.

Professor Florides joined Trinity College as a lecturer in mathematics in 1962 and taught at the University until April 2002 when he retired.  During his career at TCD he balanced his academic commitments with an outstanding contribution to College.  He served on many committees and was a member of the Board and of the Council of the College, and the Warden of Trinity Hall from 1989 – 1996.  He was appointed Associate Professor in 1971 and was also elected both as Junior Fellow (1971) and Senior Fellow (2001).  In his new role, Professor Florides will join existing Pro-Chancellors, Dr Tony O’Reilly, Dr Patrick Molloy, Dr Dermot McAleese, Dr John Scattergood and Dr David Spearman. 

Professor Petros Florides, Pro-Chancellor of the University, with Provost, Dr John Hegarty.

At the inauguration the Provost, Dr John Hegarty said: “It is with the greatest pleasure that I welcome a colleague with a tremendous record of teaching, scholarship and contribution, a colleague with such a tremendous record of service to the College and wider community, to the Pro-Chancellorship of the University of Dublin.”

Professor Florides’ research interest is focussed on the classical theory of relativity with an interest in cosmology and astrophysics.  He is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and a member of the International Society on Relativity and Gravitation, and a founding member of the Hellenic Society on Relativity, Gravitation and Cosmology.

During his career, Professor Florides maintained many associations with the country of his birth, Cyprus.    He was a member of the Preparatory Committee for the establishment of the University of Cyprus and, subsequently, the Chairman of the Selection Committee for the recruitment of the first members of the Mathematics and Statistics Department (1989-1996).  He was the Chairman of the Peer Review Committee for the first ever evaluation of third level institutions in Greece in 1995 and also served as Chairman of the Local Organising Committee of the 17th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation which was held in 2004 at the Royal Dublin Society.  In 2005 Professor Florides was invited by the Royal Society of London to write the Biographical Memoir of Professor J L Synge (1897-1995) which was published to great acclaim.  Synge was one of Trinity College’s most distinguished graduates and Professor Florides worked closely with him in the School of Theoretical Physics of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies until 1970.