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Name: David McConnell
Professor of Genetics at the Smurfit Institute
TCD Qualifications: M.A., F.T.C.D.

What was it like to study in Trinity during the 1960s?
Trinity in 1962-66 was a wonderland. The freedom was splendid, to study subjects one loved, to play sports at many levels, to join societies, to make new friends, to discuss national and international affairs, and to plan how the world would be organised when we got control. There were about 3000 students, about one third each from the Republic, the North and Britain. The infamous Ban was rigorously enforced by Archbishop John Charles McQuaid, so there were very few Irish Catholics. The UK students had a better schooling, wider experiences and good grants, so they set the pace in many respects, which was good for us all. Trinity was thoroughly cosmopolitan, a contrast with almost everything else in Ireland. It provided a marvellous intellectual formation. Living in College for two years (No 34.1.1), with two wives, one a historian the other a chemist, with no central heating and no running water (a tap on the stairs), one toilet under the stair well on the ground floor, one gas ring to cook baked beans or scrambled egg for lunch, just getting by with the help of our skip, eating on Commons 4 or 5 times a week, drinking when funds allowed in the Stag’s Head, debating in the GMB till late into the night and racing to make a 9 o’clock lecture while Arts students ambled to the bathhouse in their dressing gowns. Then the long summer two month slog studying for the annual examinations at the end of September. Term-time was mainly extracurricular, while the long vacation was for intense and serious study. If you failed you repeated the year.

Who was your role model during your student days?
I had some splendid teachers at Sandford Park School, the only non-denominational school in Ireland. When I came to College to study physics, sad to say the physics lecturers, with the exception of Cyril Delaney, were not impressive. Prof Walton lectured to the pre-Meds, but did not teach Junior Freshman physics, two mistakes. In any case I realised my maths was not going to be good enough. Fortunately I was impressed by Prof Wesley Cocker who gave superb lectures in organic chemistry, putting me on the path to biochemistry and then to molecular genetics. The bigger the molecules (polysaccharides, proteins, nucleic acids) the more they interested me. Bruno Orsi and Billy Roberts gave exhilarating lectures in biochemistry and microbiology. Two other key people were Owen Sheehy Skeffington, the outspoken social critic, who represented liberal Trinity in the Senate, and George Dawson who encouraged me to choose Genetics for mod - after entertaining me to my first and only dinner in Jammet’s. In fact the decision was easy - genetics is the fundamental science of life and George had a fine inquisitive mind. He had numerous interests which broadened our horizons. He founded the Department of Genetics, the Department of History of Art, and the Douglas Hyde Gallery among other innovative projects. The Genetics Department had two full-time staff but George contrived a challenging course, based on fine teaching by Peter Smith-Keary, which confirmed my decision “to be a geneticist”.We were studying genetics in its first golden age, not long after the discovery of the double helix of DNA by James Watson and Francis Crick in 1953 - the Central Dogma was being vindicated and the genetic code was being broken as we (just three students) studied in 1965 - 1966.

During your 44 year career in Trinity, what were the highlights?
As a student I was elected Auditor of the Hist, and for three years I spent more time in the GMB than in lectures or practicals. I enjoyed debating. My great friend Cian OhEigeartaigh and I won the Irish Times competition twice and the Observer Mace. I focused on genetics as a Senior Soph and I was chuffed to get a First and a Gold Medal, both to my enormous surprise. I thought I had blown the exam in my viva with Guido Pontecorvo. George Dawson was really interested in advising students and arranged for me to study at the California Institute of Technology, a mecca for geneticists. There I was taught molecular biology by giants in the field, Sinsheimer, Delbruck, Davidson and Lewis and given fine facilities by my supervisor James Bonner. Later as a member of staff the main highlights were the research achievements of my research students in several projects, notably the cloning of various bacterial genes. The first computer analysis of a DNA sequence with Paul Sharp and Mark Rogers, though by no means earth-shattering, was satisfying. A paper in PNAS on the discovery of a molecular chaperone gave me a great kick. I proposed the idea to Danish colleagues, I knew how to test it, we did the experiments in Trinity and they showed I was right !! It does not usually happen that way. At a different level I was really pleased to have worked with Provost Watts in setting up the Smurfit Chair of Medical Genetics, and with Provost Mitchell in the funding, planning and building of the Smurfit Institute of Genetics, which now has about 150 researchers led by 15 faculty.

What is your proudest academic achievement?
This is a hard question. I think I am happy that I was heavily involved in introducing the experimental study of molecular genetics to Trinity and Ireland. This is the study of genes as molecules. George had wisely promoted bacterial genetics and John Atkins and Shahla Thompson had done some beautiful work on the genetic code, but mostly at that time using classical bacterial genetics techniques. I began to work on purified intact DNA molecules, and in 1971, only 1 year after their discovery, my student Peter Humphries was making and using restriction enzymes to analyse the DNA. This was the beginning of genetic engineering which prepared the way for the second golden period of genetics. Broadly I am most proud of the fact that I participated in building up Trinity genetics, in teaching and research, to a level where my colleagues today have substantial international reputations. We attracted brilliant students and staff and many have gone on to make substantial contributions to genetics.

What has been your biggest challenge?
The biggest challenge by far was doing science in a scientific desert. Ireland had abandoned science in 1922. However in 1969 the National Science Council was set up to fund science on the basis of excellence. I got a grant for a project called “The Isolation of a Gene”, but following the oil crisis of 1973, the NSC collapsed, leaving me, and my students, stranded. At the time I had what I thought was a great strategy to identify and purify a gene which caused cancer - it was funded but at a miserable level. In 1975-76, when genetics was beginning to revolutionise biology, as well as medicine and agriculture, I felt I had no option but to prepare to go abroad, probably permanently. I spent 18 months on leave of absence at Harvard working with Walter Gilbert, one of the two inventors of DNA sequencing. The question was "would I return for good to Trinity or leave". Then I heard that the EU was opening up a science programme and indeed the Irish Government began to fund science again setting up the National Board for Science and Technology. So I decided to stay. Funding my research remained by far the biggest challenge at a time when the field of genetics was changing by the month. Luckily, Tom Hardiman, head of the NBST introduced me to the managing director of Guinnesses and they funded a fine and successful project on yeast. A few years later a wonderful group of people with an inherited form of blindness, retinitis pigmentosa, supported a pilot project, carried out brilliantly by my student Jane Farrar, and this led to wonderful work by Pete Humphries, Jane Farrar and Paul Kenna. Other collaborative projects on DNA sequencing and DNA sequence analysis (bioinformatics) were funded, so that gradually the department became well established. The high points for me were my contributions to the government decision to establish Science Foundation Ireland (2000), and the EC decision to establish the European Research Council (2007). Irish scientists were no longer working in a desert.

What advice would you give to a student pursuing a career in genetics?
Lots of maths and chemistry in school; biology can come later. At university make sure you study lots of chemistry, biochemistry, mathematics, computer science and statistics, alongside genetics early in your career. These are indispensable for preparing you for either molecular or mathematical genetics or both, which you can develop in your last two years at university.

You are an active volunteer with a passion for philanthropy. Why do you think it is important to give back to Trinity?
All students in Trinity have benefited from philanthropic support, notably in the case of Genetics, from Michael Smurfit, Martin Naughton, William Vincent, Chuck Feeney, Feargal Quinn, James Watson, Beate Schuler, Fighting Blindness and the Wellcome Trust. We who have benefited have a duty to make our own contributions, no matter how small. External donors are mightily impressed by the percentage of alumni who support their alma mater. Government support for Trinity is now less than 50%, the lowest by far for 40 years. My ambition is for Trinity to convince the Government that we need a new contract and a new strategy which would allow Trinity to become much more independent, and in that way make an even greater contribution to Ireland. Philanthropy would play a large part in such a strategy.

Will the word “retirement” be in your vocabulary from now on? And what does the next chapter hold?
I will never be able to stop thinking about science and all of its ramifications. What I hope to do is to persuade more people, especially young people, that science holds the key to understanding the natural world and our place in it. Few are aware that as Isaiah Berlin noted, science is the greatest intellectual achievement of the last two centuries. It is a pity that so few people appreciate the beauty and success of science. If I can “put the seat of my pants on the seat of my chair” often enough, I want to write about how science might have a greater role in society. It was science, especially the study of genetics and evolution, that brought me to humanism. With the Humanist Association of Ireland I look forward to a time when humanism, in all its diversity, will be the main source of inspiration for our society.

The Smurfit Institute of Genetics has established the David McConnell Scholarship Fund to support students. Contributions can be made online.