Renowned Irish rugby player Brian O’Driscoll and former journalist Olivia O’Leary, as well as world-leading academics in the fields of astronomy and physiology will be awarded honorary degrees in Trinity on Friday.
O’Driscoll is the most capped Irish rugby player and the second most capped in rugby union history. He holds the Six Nations record for most tries scored.
O’Leary is a leading Irish journalist and broadcaster, who has hosted many RTÉ shows throughout her career, including Today Tonight, Prime Time and Questions and Answers. She is known for her work reporting from Northern Ireland in the 1970s. In 2011, she addressed Queen Elizabeth II.
Joining O’Driscoll and O’Leary are prominent academics Gero Miesenböck and George Kildare Miley, in the fields of physiology and astronomy respectively.
Miesenböck is a Waynflete Professor of Physiology and Director of the Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour at the University of Oxford. He is a pioneer in the study of optogenetics used to investigate mechanisms of sleep, learning and memory, and action choice.
Miley is an Emeritus Professor of Astronomy at Leiden University and is an expert in distant radio galaxies. In 1997, he pioneered the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) telescope, which has stations across Europe. Born and educated in Dublin in Gonzaga College and University College Dublin (UCD), Miley spend most of his life in the Netherlands, where he was recently knighted for his contributions to astronomy and society.
Also receiving an honorary degree is former Senior Archivist of the National Archives of Ireland Catriona Crowe. She recently initiated and managed the 1911 online census project. Crowe has also served as a research associate of the Trinity Research Centre for Contemporary Irish History since 2004.
In an email to all students and staff, Registrar Paula Murphy announced the awardees of the degrees. The degrees, awarded each year to no more than 10 individuals, honour contributions to scholarship, society and culture.
Following the awards, additional events will be held for students to interact with the awardees. O’Driscoll will host an informal questions-and-answers session with Trinity’s student sports clubs on December 8th, though attendance will be by invitation only. Miesenböck will be hosting a lecture on optogenetics in the Smurfit Institute of Genetics. This lecture is open to all.
Previous awardees of honorary degrees in Trinity include Bob Geldof, JP Donleavy, Rory O’Neill, Louise Richardson and Peter Higgs.
