Three Trinity Academics Admitted to the Royal Irish Academy

May 29, 2012

Three of Trinity College Dublin’s academics were elected as members of the Royal Irish Academy on Friday May 25th last, in recognition of their academic achievement.  The new members include Professor John Pethica, Professor Richard Reilly and Dr Daniel McCarthy. 

Membership of the Royal Irish Academy is the highest academic honour in Ireland and a public recognition of academic achievement. It has been keenly competed for over the past 227 years. There are now 466 members of the Academy, in disciplines from the sciences, humanities and social sciences. 

Professor Richard Reilly and Dr Daniel McCarthy, two of the three new Trinity RIA members are congratulated by Professor Luke Drury, President of the RIA (centre)

Daniel McCarthy is Fellow Emeritus of Trinity College Dublin, and a former Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at Trinity. His many highly regarded publications include The Irish Annals – their genesis, evolution and history (2008), which revolutionised the study of the Irish annals. In his work he has combined a unique expertise in Computer Science and medieval Studies enabling him to reconstruct the chronological framework of early Irish history.

Richard Reilly is Professor of Neural Engineering and Director of the Trinity Centre for Bioengineering. His research focuses on the processing of signals that diagnose the human physiological and cognitive state. His research has uncovered non-invasive electrophysical biomarkers for cognitive function, and has created leading-edge, patient-oriented neurodiagnostics methods, neural prosthetics and therapeutic neuromodulation devices.

John Pethica is a Principal Investigator and founder director of the CRANN and a SFI Research Professor in the School of Physics. He is at the forefront of nanomechanics research internationally and has made crucial contributions to the development of nanoscience in Ireland. He has been a Fellow of the Royal Society since 1999, and is currently the Physical Secretary (Vice President) of the Royal Society. He is also visiting professor at Oxford and Scientific Advisor to the UK National Physical Laboratory,